Catherine II (Russian: Екатерина Алексеевна Yekaterina Alekseyevna; 2 May [O.S. 21 April] 1729 – 17 November [O.S. 6 November] 1796), also known as Catherine the Great (Екатери́на Вели́кая, Yekaterina Velikaya), born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, was Empress of Russia from 1762 until 1796, the country's longest-ruling female leader and arguably its most renowned, regardless of gender (although Peter the Great was the only Tsar officially designated as "The Great"[citation needed]). She came to power following a coup d'état when her husband, Peter III, was assassinated. Russia was revitalised under her reign, growing larger as well as stronger in military terms and becoming recognised as one of the great powers of Europe.

Catherine reformed the administration of Russian guberniyas, and many new cities and towns were founded on her orders. An admirer of Peter the Great, Catherine continued to modernise Russia along Western European lines. However, military conscription and the economy continued to depend on serfdom, and the increasing demands of the state and private landowners led to increased levels of reliance on serfs, this was one of the chief reasons behind several rebellions, including the large-scale Pugachev's Rebellion of cossacks and peasants.

The period of Catherine the Great's rule, the Catherinian Era, is often considered the Golden Age of the Russian Empire and the Russian nobility, the Manifesto on Freedom of the Nobility, issued during the short reign of Peter III and confirmed by Catherine, freed Russian nobles from compulsory military or state service. Construction of many mansions of the nobility, in the classical style endorsed by the Empress, changed the face of the country, she enthusiastically supported the ideals of The Enlightenment, thus earning the status of an enlightened despot.[1] As a patron of the arts she presided over the age of the Russian Enlightenment, a period when the Smolny Institute, the first state-financed higher education institution for women in Europe, was established.

The choice of Sophia as wife of her second cousin, the prospective tsarPeter of Holstein-Gottorp, resulted from some amount of diplomatic management in which Count Lestocq, Peter's aunt (and ruling Russian Empress) Elizabeth and Frederick II of Prussia took part. Lestocq and Frederick wanted to strengthen the friendship between Prussia and Russia to weaken Austria's influence and ruin the Russian chancellor Bestuzhev, on whom Empress Elizabeth relied, and who acted as a known partisan of Russo-Austrian co-operation. Catherine first met Peter III at the age of 10. Based on her writings, she found Peter detestable upon meeting him, she disliked his pale complexion and his fondness for alcohol at such a young age. Peter also still played with toy soldiers. Catherine later wrote that she stayed at one end of the castle, and Peter at the other.[7]

The diplomatic intrigue failed, largely due to the intervention of Sophia's mother, Johanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp. Historical accounts portray her as a cold, abusive woman who loved gossip and court intrigues. Johanna's hunger for fame centred on her daughter's prospects of becoming empress of Russia, but she infuriated Empress Elizabeth, who eventually banned her from the country for spying for King Frederick of Prussia, the Empress Elizabeth knew the family well: she had intended to marry Princess Johanna's brother Charles Augustus (Karl August von Holstein), who had died of smallpox in 1727 before the wedding could take place.[8] In spite of Johanna's interference, Empress Elizabeth took a strong liking to the daughter, who, on arrival in Russia in 1744, spared no effort to ingratiate herself not only with the Empress Elizabeth, but with her husband and with the Russian people, she applied herself to learning the Russian language with such zeal, she rose at night and walked about her bedroom barefoot, repeating her lessons (even though she mastered the language, she retained an accent). This led to a severe attack of pneumonia in March 1744. When she wrote her memoirs, she said she made up her mind when she came to Russia to do whatever was necessary, and to profess to believe whatever was required of her, to become qualified to wear the crown.

Portrait by George Christoph Grooth of the Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseyevna around the time of her wedding, 1745

Princess Sophia's father, a devout German Lutheran, opposed his daughter's conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy, despite his objection, on 28 June 1744 the Russian Orthodox Church received Princess Sophia as a member with the new name Catherine (Yekaterina or Ekaterina) and the (artificial) patronymic Алексеевна (Alekseyevna, daughter of Aleksey). On the following day, the formal betrothal took place, the long-planned dynastic marriage finally occurred on 21 August 1745 in Saint Petersburg. Sophia had turned 16; her father did not travel to Russia for the wedding. The bridegroom, known then as Peter von Holstein-Gottorp, had become Duke of Holstein-Gottorp (located in the north-west of present-day[update] Germany near the border with Denmark) in 1739.

As she recalled in her memoirs, as soon as she arrived in Russia, she fell ill with a pleuritis that almost killed her, she credited her survival to frequent bloodletting; in a single day, she had four phlebotomies. Her mother, being opposed to this practice, fell into the Empress's disfavour. When her situation looked desperate, her mother wanted her confessed by a Lutheran priest. Awaking from her delirium, however, Catherine said: "I don't want any Lutheran; I want my orthodox father." This raised her in the Empress's esteem.

The newlyweds settled in the palace of Oranienbaum, which remained the residence of the "young court" for many years to come.

Count Andrei Shuvalov, chamberlain to Catherine, knew the diarist James Boswell well, and Boswell reports that Shuvalov shared private information regarding the monarch's intimate affairs, some of these rumours included that Peter took a mistress (Elizabeth Vorontsova),[9] while Catherine carried on liaisons with Sergei Saltykov,[10]Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov (1734–1783),[11][12]Alexander Vasilchikov,[13][14]Grigory Potemkin,[13][14][15][16]Stanisław August Poniatowski,[17][18] and others. She became friends with Princess Ekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova, the sister of her husband's mistress, who introduced her to several powerful political groups that opposed her husband. Peter III's temperament became quite unbearable for those who resided in the palace, he would announce trying drills in the morning to male servants, who later joined Catherine in her room to sing and dance until late hours.[19] Catherine became pregnant with her second child, Anna, who only lived to four months, in 1759. Due to various rumours of Catherine's promiscuity, Peter was led to believe he was not the child's biological father and is known to have proclaimed, "Go to the devil!" when Catherine angrily dismissed his accusation. She thus spent much of this time alone in her own private boudoir to hide away from Peter's abrasive personality.[20]

Catherine recalled in her memoirs her optimistic and resolute mood before her accession to the throne:

I used to say to myself that happiness and misery depend on ourselves. If you feel unhappy, raise your self above unhappiness, and so act that your happiness may be independent of all eventualities.[21]

After the death of the Empress Elizabeth on 5 January 1762 (OS: 25 December 1761), Peter succeeded to the throne as Emperor Peter III, and Catherine became empress consort, the imperial couple moved into the new Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg.

Russia and Prussia fought each other during the Seven Years' War (1756–1763) until Peter's accession. Peter's insistence on supporting Frederick II of Prussia, who had seen Berlin occupied by Russian troops in 1760, but now suggested partitioning Polish territories with Russia, eroded much of his support among the nobility.

Equestrian portrait of the Grand Duchess Yekaterina Alexeyevna

In July 1762, barely six months after becoming emperor, Peter took a holiday with his Holstein-born courtiers and relatives to Oranienbaum, leaving his wife in Saint Petersburg, on the night of 8 July (OS: 27 June 1762),[22] Catherine the Great was given the news that one of her co-conspirators had been arrested by her estranged husband, and that all they had been planning must take place at once, she left the palace and departed for the Ismailovsky regiment, where she delivered a speech asking the soldiers to protect her from her husband. Catherine then left with the regiment to go to the Semenovsky Barracks, where the clergy were waiting to ordain her as the sole occupant of the Russian throne, she had her husband arrested, and forced him to sign a document of abdication, leaving no one to dispute her accession to the throne.[23][24] On 17 July 1762—eight days after the coup and just six months after his accession to the throne—Peter III died at Ropsha, at the hands of Alexei Orlov (younger brother to Grigory Orlov, then a court favourite and a participant in the coup). Historians find no evidence for Catherine's complicity in the supposed assassination.[25]

At the time of Peter III's overthrow, other potential rival claimants to the throne existed: Ivan VI (1740–1764), in close confinement at Schlüsselburg, in Lake Ladoga, from the age of six months; and Yelizaveta Alekseyevna Tarakanova (1753–1775). Ivan VI was assassinated during an attempt to free him as part of a failed coup against Catherine: Catherine, like Empress Elizabeth before her, had given strict instructions that he was to be killed in the event of any such attempt. Ivan was thought to be insane because of his years of solitary confinement, so might have made a poor emperor, even as a figurehead.

Catherine, though not descended from any previous Russian emperor of the Romanov Dynasty (she descended from the Rurik Dynasty, which preceded the Romanovs), succeeded her husband as empress regnant, she followed the precedent established when Catherine I (born in the lower classes in the Swedish East Baltic territories) succeeded her husband Peter the Great in 1725.

Historians debate Catherine's technical status, some seeing her as a regent or as a usurper, tolerable only during the minority of her son, Grand Duke Paul; in the 1770s, a group of nobles connected with Paul (Nikita Panin and others) considered a new coup to depose Catherine and transfer the crown to Paul, whose power they envisaged restricting in a kind of constitutional monarchy.[26] However, nothing came of this, and Catherine reigned until her death.

On 28 June 1762, with the aid of her lover Grigory Orlov, Catherine rallied the troops of Saint Petersburg to her support and declared herself Catherine II, the sovereign ruler of Russia, later naming her son Paul as her heir, she had Peter arrested and forced him to sign an act of abdication. When he sought permission to leave the country, she refused it, intending to hold him prisoner for life, he had only a few days to live, however, as shortly after his arrest, he was strangled to death by Catherine's supporters, though no one knows what part Catherine had in Peter's death.[27] She was crowned at the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow on 22 September 1762.[28] Catherine's coronation marks the creation of one of the main treasures of the Romanov dynasty, the Imperial Crown of Russia, designed by Swiss-French court diamond jeweller Jérémie Pauzié. Inspired by the Byzantine Empire design, the crown was constructed of two gold and silver half spheres, representing the eastern and western Roman empires, divided by a foliate garland and fastened with a low hoop. The crown contains 75 pearls and 4,936 Indian diamonds forming laurel and oak leaves, the symbols of power and strength, and is surmounted by a 398.62-carat ruby spinel that previously belonged to the Empress Elizabeth, and a diamond cross.

Catherine II on a balcony of the Winter Palace on 28 June 1762, the day of the coup

The crown was produced in a record two months and weighed only 2.3 kg.[29] From 1762, the Great Imperial Crown was the coronation crown of all Romanov emperors, till the monarchy’s abolition and the death of last Romanov, Nicholas II, in 1918, it is one of the main treasures of the Romanov dynasty, and is now on display in the MoscowKremlinArmoury Museum.[30]

Catherine's foreign minister, Nikita Panin (in office 1763–81), exercised considerable influence from the beginning of her reign. A shrewd statesman, Panin dedicated much effort and millions of rubles to setting up a "Northern Accord" between Russia, Prussia, Poland, and Sweden, to counter the power of the Bourbon–Habsburg League. When it became apparent that his plan could not succeed, Panin fell out of favour and Catherine had him replaced with Ivan Osterman (in office 1781–97).

While Peter the Great had succeeded only in gaining a toehold in the south on the edge of the Black Sea in the Azov campaigns, Catherine completed the conquest of the south. Catherine made Russia the dominant power in south-eastern Europe after her first Russo-Turkish War against the Ottoman Empire (1768–74), which saw some of the heaviest defeats in Turkish history, including the Battle of Chesma (5–7 July 1770) and the Battle of Kagul (21 July 1770).

The Russian victories allowed Catherine's government to obtain access to the Black Sea and to incorporate present-day southern Ukraine, where the Russians founded the new cities of Odessa, Nikolayev, Yekaterinoslav (literally: "the Glory of Catherine"; the future Dnepropetrovsk), and Kherson. The Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca, signed 10 July 1774, gave the Russians territories at Azov, Kerch, Yenikale, Kinburn, and the small strip of Black Sea coast between the rivers Dnieper and Bug. The treaty also removed restrictions on Russian naval or commercial traffic in the Azov Sea, granted to Russia the position of protector of Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire, and made the Crimea a protectorate of Russia.

Catherine annexed the Crimea in 1783, nine years after the Crimean Khanate had gained nominal independence—which had been guaranteed by Russia—from the Ottoman Empire as a result of her first war against the Turks, the palace of the Crimean khans passed into the hands of the Russians. In 1787, Catherine conducted a triumphal procession in the Crimea, which helped provoke the next Russo–Turkish War.

In accordance with the Treaty of Georgievsk (1783) Russia had signed with the Georgians to protect them against any new invasion of their Persian suzerains and further political aspirations, Catherine waged a new war against Persia in 1796 after they, under the new king Agha Mohammad Khan, had again invaded Georgia and established rule over it in 1795 and had expelled the newly established Russian garrisons in the Caucasus. The ultimate goal for the Russian government however was to topple the anti-Russian shah (king), and to replace him with a half-brother, namely Morteza Qoli Khan, who had defected to Russia, and was therefore pro-Russian.[32][33]

It was widely expected that a 13,000-strong Russian corps would be led by a seasoned general (Gudovich)—but the Empress followed the advice of her lover, Prince Zubov, and entrusted the command to his youthful brother, Count Valerian Zubov. The Russian troops set out from Kizlyar in April 1796 and stormed the key fortress of Derbent on 10 May. The event was glorified by the court poet Derzhavin in his famous ode; he later commented bitterly on Zubov's inglorious return from the expedition in another remarkable poem.

By mid-June, Zubov's troops overran without any resistance most of the territory of modern-day Azerbaijan, including three principal cities — Baku, Shemakha, and Ganja. By November, they were stationed at the confluence of the Araks and Kura Rivers, poised to attack mainland Iran.

In that month, the Empress of Russia died and her successor Paul, who detested the Zubovs and had other plans for the army, ordered the troops to retreat to Russia, this reversal aroused the frustration and enmity of the powerful Zubovs and other officers who took part in the campaign: many of them would be among the conspirators who arranged Paul's murder five years later.

A 1791 British caricature of an attempted mediation between Catherine (on the right, supported by Austria and France) and Turkey

Catherine longed for recognition as an enlightened sovereign, she pioneered for Russia the role that Britain later played through most of the 19th and early 20th centuries as an international mediator in disputes that could, or did, lead to war. She acted as mediator in the War of the Bavarian Succession (1778–79) between the German states of Prussia and Austria; in 1780, she established a League of Armed Neutrality, designed to defend neutral shipping from the British Royal Navy during the American Revolution.

From 1788 to 1790, Russia fought a war against Sweden, a conflict instigated by Catherine's cousin, King Gustav III of Sweden, who expected to simply overtake the Russian armies still engaged in war against the Ottoman Turks, and hoped to strike Saint Petersburg directly, but Russia's Baltic Fleet checked the Royal Swedish navy in a tied battle of Hogland (July 1788), and the Swedish army failed to advance. Denmark declared war on Sweden in 1788 (the Theatre War), after the decisive defeat of the Russian fleet at the Battle of Svensksund in 1790, the parties signed the Treaty of Värälä (14 August 1790), returning all conquered territories to their respective owners and confirming the Treaty of Åbo. Peace ensued for 20 years, aided by the assassination of Gustav III in 1792.

After the French Revolution of 1789, Catherine rejected many principles of the Enlightenment she had once viewed favourably. Afraid the May Constitution of Poland (1791) might lead to a resurgence in the power of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the growing democratic movements inside the Commonwealth might become a threat to the European monarchies, Catherine decided to intervene in Poland, she provided support to a Polish antireform group known as the Targowica Confederation. After defeating Polish loyalist forces in the Polish–Russian War of 1792 and in the Kościuszko Uprising (1794), Russia completed the partitioning of Poland, dividing all of the remaining Commonwealth territory with Prussia and Austria (1795).

In the Far East, Russians became active in fur trapping in Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands, this spurred Russian interest in opening trade with Japan to the south for supplies and food. In 1783, storms drove a Japanese sea captain, Daikokuya Kōdayū, ashore in the Aleutian Islands, at that time Russian territory. Russian local authorities helped his party, and the Russian government decided to use him as a trade envoy, on 28 June 1791, Catherine granted Daikokuya an audience at Tsarskoye Selo. Subsequently, in 1792, the Russian government dispatched a trade mission to Japan, led by Adam Laxman, the Tokugawa shogunate received the mission, but negotiations failed.

The economic development was well below the standards in western Europe. Historian Francois Cruzet says her Russia:

had neither a free peasantry, nor a significant middle class, nor legal norms hospitable to private enterprise. Still, there was a start of industry, mainly textiles around Moscow and ironworks in the Ural Mountains, with a labor force mainly of serfs, bound to the works.[34]

Catherine strongly encouraged the migration of the Volga Germans—farmers from Germany who settled mostly in the Volga River Valley region, they indeed helped modernize the sector that totally dominated the Russian economy. They introduced numerous innovations regarding wheat production and flour milling, tobacco culture, sheep raising, and small-scale manufacturing.[35][36]

In 1768, the Assignation Bank was given the task of issuing the first government paper money, it opened in St. Petersburg and Moscow in 1769. Several bank branches were afterwards established in other towns, called government towns. Paper notes were issued upon payment of similar sums in copper money, which were also refunded upon the presentation of those notes, the emergence of these Assignation rubles was necessary due to large government spending on military needs, which led to a shortage of silver in the treasury (transactions, especially in foreign trade, were conducted almost exclusively in silver and gold coins). Assignation rubles circulated on equal footing with the silver ruble; a market exchange rate for these two currencies was ongoing. The use of these notes continued until 1849.[37]

Marble bust of Catherine the Great, 1771. From Rome, Italy. By Fedot Shubin, commissioned by Ivan Shuvalov for Catherine the Great, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Catherine had a reputation as a patron of the arts, literature, and education, the Hermitage Museum, which now[update] occupies the whole Winter Palace, began as Catherine's personal collection. At the instigation of her factotum, Ivan Betskoy, she wrote a manual for the education of young children, drawing from the ideas of John Locke, and founded (1764) the famous Smolny Institute, which admitted young girls of the nobility.

Catherine enlisted Voltaire to her cause, and corresponded with him for 15 years, from her accession to his death in 1778, he lauded her accomplishments, calling her "The Star of the North" and the "Semiramis of Russia" (in reference to the legendary Queen of Babylon, a subject on which he published a tragedy in 1768). Though she never met him face to face, she mourned him bitterly when he died, she acquired his collection of books from his heirs, and placed them in the National Library of Russia.

Within a few months of her accession in 1762, having heard the French government threatened to stop the publication of the famous French Encyclopédie on account of its irreligious spirit, Catherine proposed to Diderot that he should complete his great work in Russia under her protection.

Four years later, in 1766, she endeavoured to embody in legislation the principles of Enlightenment she learned from studying the French philosophers, she called together at Moscow a Grand Commission—almost a consultative parliament—composed of 652 members of all classes (officials, nobles, burghers, and peasants) and of various nationalities. The Commission had to consider the needs of the Russian Empire and the means of satisfying them, the Empress herself prepared the "Instructions for the Guidance of the Assembly", pillaging (as she frankly admitted) the philosophers of Western Europe, especially Montesquieu and Cesare Beccaria.

As many of the democratic principles frightened her more moderate and experienced advisors, she refrained from immediately putting them into practice, after holding more than 200 sittings, the so-called Commission dissolved without getting beyond the realm of theory.

In spite of this, Catherine began issuing codes to address some of the modernisation trends suggested in her Nakaz; in 1775, the Empress decreed a Statute for the Administration of the Provinces of the Russian Empire. The statute sought to efficiently govern Russia by increasing population and dividing the country into provinces and districts. By the end of her reign, 50 provinces and nearly 500 districts were created, more than double the government officials were appointed, and they were spending six times as much as previously on local government; in 1785, Catherine conferred on the nobility the Charter to the Nobility, increasing further the power of the landed oligarchs. Nobles in each district elected a Marshal of the Nobility, who spoke on their behalf to the monarch on issues of concern to them, mainly economic ones; in the same year, Catherine issued the Charter of the Towns, which distributed all people into six groups as a way to limit the power of nobles and create a middle estate. Catherine also issued the Code of Commercial Navigation and Salt Trade Code of 1781, the Police Ordinance of 1782, and the Statute of National Education of 1786; in 1777, the Empress described to Voltaire her legal innovations within a backward Russia as progressing "little by little".

Catherine also received Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun (formerly court painter to Marie Antoinette) at her Tsarskoye Selo residence in St Petersburg, by whom she was painted shortly before her death. Madame Vigée Le Brun vividly describes the empress in her memoirs: "the sight of this famous woman so impressed me that I found it impossible to think of anything: I could only stare at her. Firstly I was very surprised at her small stature; I had imagined her to be very tall, as great as her fame. She was also very fat, but her face was still beautiful, and she wore her white hair up, framing it perfectly, her genius seemed to rest on her forehead, which was both high and wide. Her eyes were soft and sensitive, her nose quite Greek, her colour high and her features expressive, she addressed me immediately in a voice full of sweetness, if a little throaty: "I am delighted to welcome you here, Madame, your reputation runs before you. I am very fond of the arts, especially painting. I am no connoisseur, but I am a great art lover."

Madame Vigée Le Brun also describes the empress at a gala: "The double doors opened and the Empress appeared. I have said that she was quite small, and yet on the days when she made her public appearances, with her head held high, her eagle-like stare and a countenance accustomed to command, all this gave her such an air of majesty that to me she might have been Queen of the World; she wore the sashes of three orders, and her costume was both simple and regal; it consisted of a muslin tunic embroidered with gold fastened by a diamond belt, and the full sleeves were folded back in the Asiatic style. Over this tunic she wore a red velvet dolman with very short sleeves, the bonnet which held her white hair was not decorated with ribbons, but with the most beautiful diamonds."

Catherine held western European philosophies and culture close to her heart, and she wanted to surround herself with like-minded people within Russia,[38] she believed a 'new kind of person' could be created by inculcating Russian children with European education. Catherine believed education could change the hearts and minds of the Russian people and turn them away from backwardness, this meant developing individuals both intellectually and morally, providing them knowledge and skills, and fostering a sense of civic responsibility.[39]

Catherine appointed Ivan Betskoy as her advisor on educational matters.[40] Through him, she collected information from Russia and other countries about educational institutions, she also established a commission composed of T.N. Teplov, T. von Klingstedt, F.G. Dilthey, and the historian G. Muller, she consulted British education pioneers, particularly the Rev. Daniel Dumaresq and Dr John Brown.[41] In 1764, she sent for Dumaresq to come to Russia and then appointed him to the educational commission, the commission studied the reform projects previously installed by I.I. Shuvalov under Elizabeth and under Peter III, they submitted recommendations for the establishment of a general system of education for all Russian orthodox subjects from the age of 5 to 18, excluding serfs.[42] However, no action was taken on any recommendations put forth by the commission due to the calling of the Legislative Commission; in July 1765, Dumaresq wrote to Dr. John Brown about the commission’s problems and received a long reply containing very general and sweeping suggestions for education and social reforms in Russia. Dr. Brown argued, in a democratic country, education ought to be under the state’s control and based on an education code, he also placed great emphasis on the "proper and effectual education of the female sex"; two years prior, Catherine had commissioned Ivan Betskoy to draw up the General Programme for the Education of Young People of Both Sexes.[43] This work emphasised the fostering of the creation of a 'new kind of people' raised in isolation from the damaging influence of a backward Russian environment,[44] the Establishment of the Moscow Foundling Home (Moscow Orphanage) was the first attempt at achieving that goal. It was charged with admitting destitute and extramarital children to educate them in any way the state deemed fit, since the Moscow Foundling Home was not established as a state-funded institution, it represented an opportunity to experiment with new educational theories. However, the Moscow Foundling Home was unsuccessful, mainly due to extremely high mortality rates, which prevented many of the children from living long enough to develop into the enlightened subjects the state desired.[45]

Not long after the Moscow Foundling Home, Catherine established the Smolny Institute for Noble Girls to educate females, the Smolny Institute was the first of its kind in Russia. At first, the Institute only admitted young girls of the noble elite, but eventually it began to admit girls of the petit-bourgeoisie, as well,[46] the girls who attended the Smolny Institute, Smolyanki, were often accused of being ignorant of anything that went on in the world outside the walls of the Smolny buildings. Within the walls of the Institute, they were taught impeccable French, musicianship, dancing, and complete awe of the Monarch, at the Institute, enforcement of strict discipline was central to its philosophy. Running and games were forbidden, and the building was kept particularly cold because too much warmth was believed to be harmful to the developing body, as was excess play.[47]

During 1768–1774, no progress was made in setting up a national school system.[48] Catherine continued to investigate educational theory and practice of other countries, she made many educational reforms despite the lack of a national school system. The remodelling of the Cadet Corps 1766 initiated many educational reforms, it then began to take children from a very young age and educate them until the age of 21. The curriculum was broadened from the professional military curriculum to include the sciences, philosophy, ethics, history, and international law, this policy in the Cadet Corps influenced the teaching in the Naval Cadet Corps and in the Engineering and Artillery Schools. After the war and the defeat of Pugachev, Catherine laid the obligation to establish schools at the guberniya—a provincial subdivision of the Russian empire ruled by a governor—on the Boards of Social Welfare set up with the participation of elected representatives from the three free estates.[49]

By 1782, Catherine arranged another advisory commission to study the information gathered about the educational systems of many different countries.[50] A system produced by a mathematician, Franz Aepinus, stood out in particular, he was strongly in favour of the adoption of the Austrian three-tier model of trivial, real, and normal schools at village, town, and provincial capital levels. In addition to the advisory commission, Catherine established a Commission of National Schools under Pyotr Zavadovsky, this commission was charged with organising a national school network, training the teachers, and providing the textbooks. On 5 August 1786, the Russian Statute of National Education was promulgated,[51] the statute established a two-tier network of high schools and primary schools in guberniya capitals that were free of charge, open to all of the free classes (not serfs), and co-educational. It also regulated, in detail, the subjects to be taught at every age and the method of teaching; in addition to the textbooks translated by the commission, teachers were provided with the "Guide to Teachers". This work, divided into four parts, dealt with teaching methods, the subjects taught, the behaviour of the teacher, and the running of a school.[51]

Judgment of the 19th century was generally critical, claiming that Catherine failed to supply enough money to support her educational programme.[52] Two years after the implementation of Catherine’s programme, a member of the National Commission inspected the institutions established. Throughout Russia, the inspectors encountered a patchy response. While the nobility put up appreciable amounts of money for these institutions, they preferred to send their children to private, more prestigious institutions. Also, the townspeople tended to turn against the junior schools and their pedagogical methods. An estimated 62,000 pupils were being educated in some 549 state institutions near the end of Catherine’s reign, this was only a minuscule number of people compared to the size of the Russian population.[53]

Catherine's apparent whole-hearted adoption of all things Russian (including Orthodoxy) may have prompted her personal indifference to religion, she nationalised all of the church lands to help pay for her wars, largely emptied the monasteries, and forced most of the remaining clergymen to survive as farmers or from fees for baptisms and other services. Very few members of the nobility entered the Church, which became even less important than before, she did not allow dissenters to build chapels, and she suppressed religious dissent after the onset of the French Revolution.[54]

However, Catherine promoted Christianity in her anti-Ottoman policy, promoting the protection and fostering of Christians under Turkish rule, she placed strictures on Roman Catholics (ukaz of 23 February 1769), mainly Polish, and attempted to assert and extend state control over them in the wake of the partitions of Poland.[55] Nevertheless, Catherine's Russia provided an asylum and a base for regrouping to the Jesuits following the suppression of the Jesuits in most of Europe in 1773.[55]

Catherine took many different approaches to Islam during her reign. Between 1762 and 1773, Muslims were actively prohibited from owning any Orthodox serfs, they were also pressured into Orthodoxy through monetary incentives.[56] Catherine promised more serfs of all religions, as well as amnesty for convicts, if Muslims chose to convert to Orthodoxy.[57] However, the Legislative Commission of 1767 offered several seats to people professing the Islamic faith, this commission promised to protect their religious rights, but did not do so. Many Orthodox peasants felt threatened by the sudden change, and burned mosques as a sign of their displeasure.[57] Catherine chose to assimilate Islam into the state rather than eliminate it when public outcry against equality got too disruptive, after the "Toleration of All Faiths" Edict of 1773, Muslims were permitted to build mosques and practise all of their traditions, the most obvious of these being the pilgrimage to Mecca, which had been denied previously.[58] Catherine created the Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly to help regulate Muslim-populated regions, as well as regulate the instruction and ideals of mullahs. The positions on the Assembly were appointed and paid for by Catherine and her government, as a way of regulating the religious affairs of her nation.[59]

In 1785, Catherine approved the subsidisation of new mosques and new town settlements for Muslims, this was another attempt to organise and passively control the outer fringes of her country. By building new settlements with mosques placed in them, Catherine attempted to ground many of the nomadic people who wandered through southern Russia;[60] in 1786, she assimilated the Islamic schools into the Russian public school system, to be regulated by the government. The plan was another attempt to force nomadic people to settle, this allowed the Russian government to control more people, especially those who previously had not fallen under the jurisdiction of Russian law.[61]

Russia often treated Judaism as a separate entity, where Jews were maintained with a separate legal and bureaucratic system, although the government knew that Judaism existed, Catherine and her advisers had no real definition of what a "Jew" is, since the term meant many things during her reign.[62] Judaism was a small, if not nonexistent, religion in Russia until 1772. When Catherine agreed to the First Partition of Poland, the large new Jewish element was treated as a separate people, defined by their religion; in keeping with their treatment in Poland, Catherine allowed the Jews to separate themselves from Orthodox society, with certain restrictions. She levied additional taxes on the followers of Judaism; if a family converted to the Orthodox faith, that additional tax was lifted.[63] Jewish members of society were required to pay double the tax of their Orthodox neighbours. Converted Jews could gain permission to enter the merchant class and farm as free peasants under Russian rule.[64][65]

In an attempt to assimilate the Jews into Russia’s economy, Catherine included them under the rights and laws of the Charter of the Towns of 1782.[66] Orthodox Russians disliked the inclusion of Judaism, mainly for economic reasons. Catherine tried to keep the Jews away from certain economic spheres, even under the guise of equality; in 1790, she banned Jewish citizens from Moscow’s middle class.[67]

In 1785, Catherine declared Jews to be officially foreigners, with foreigners’ rights,[68] this re-established the separate identity that Judaism maintained in Russia throughout the Jewish Haskalah. Catherine’s decree also denied Jews the rights of an Orthodox or naturalised citizen of Russia. Taxes doubled again for those of Jewish descent in 1794, and Catherine officially declared that Jews bore no relation to Russians.

St. Catherine Cathedral in Kingisepp, an example of Late Baroque architecture

In many ways, the Orthodox Church fared no better than its foreign counterparts during the reign of Catherine. Under her leadership, she completed what Peter III had started: the church's lands were expropriated, and the budget of both monasteries and bishoprics were controlled by the College of Economy.[69] Endowments from the government replaced income from privately held lands, the endowments were often much less than the original intended amount.[70] She closed 569 of 954 monasteries and only 161 got government money. Only 400,000 rubles of church wealth were paid back.[71] While other religions (such as Islam) received invitations to the Legislative Commission, the Orthodox clergy did not receive a single seat,[70] their place in government was restricted severely during the years of Catherine's reign.[54]

In 1762, to help mend the rift between the Orthodox church and a sect that called themselves the Old Believers, Catherine passed an act that allowed Old Believers to practise their faith openly without interference.[72] While claiming religious tolerance, she intended to recall the Believers into the official church, they refused to comply, and in 1764, she deported over 20,000 Old Believers to Siberia on the grounds of their faith.[72] In later years, Catherine amended her thoughts. Old Believers were allowed to hold elected municipal positions after the Urban Charter of 1785, and she promised religious freedom to those who wished to settle in Russia.[73][74]

Religious education was also strictly reviewed, at first, she simply attempted to revise clerical studies, proposing a reform of religious schools. This reform never progressed beyond the planning stages. By 1786, Catherine excluded all religion and clerical studies programmes from lay education.[75] By separating the public interests from those of the church, Catherine began a secularisation of the day-to-day workings of Russia, she transformed the clergy from a group that wielded great power over the Russian government and its people to a segregated community forced to depend on the state for compensation.[70]

Catherine, throughout her long reign, took many lovers, often elevating them to high positions[76] for as long as they held her interest, and then pensioning them off with gifts of serfs and large estates, the percentage of state money spent on the court increased from 10.4% in 1767 to 11.4% in 1781 to 13.5% in 1795. Catherine gave away 66,000 serfs from 1762–72, 202,000 from 1773–93, and 100,000 in one day: 18 August 1795.[77]:119 Just as the church supported her, hoping to get their land back, Catherine bought the support of the bureaucracy, from 19 April 1764, any bureaucrat holding the same rank for seven years or more got instantly promoted. On 13 September 1767, Catherine decreed that after seven years in one rank, civil servants would be automatically promoted regardless of office or merit.[78]

After her affair with her lover and adviser Grigori Alexandrovich Potemkin ended in 1776, he allegedly selected a candidate-lover for her who had the physical beauty and mental faculties to hold her interest (such as Alexander Dmitriev-Mamonov and Nicholas Alexander Suk[79]). Some of these men loved her in return, and she always showed generosity towards them, even after the affair ended. One of her lovers, Pyotr Zavadovsky, received 50,000 rubles, a pension of 5,000 rubles, and 4,000 peasants in Ukraine after she dismissed him in 1777,[80] the last of her lovers, Prince Zubov, was 40 years her junior. Her sexual independence led to many of the legends about her.[81]

Catherine kept near Tula, away from her court, her illegitimate son by Grigori Orlov, Alexis Bobrinskoy (later created Count Bobrinskoy by Paul).

Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, the British ambassador to Russia, offered Stanisław Poniatowski a place in the embassy in return for gaining Catherine as an ally. Poniatowski, through his mother's side, came from the Czartoryski family, prominent members of the pro-Russian faction in Poland. Catherine, 26 years old and already married to the then-Grand Duke Peter for some 10 years, met the 22-year-old Poniatowski in 1755, therefore well before encountering the Orlov brothers; in 1757, Poniatowski served in the British forces during the Seven Years' War, thus severing close relationships with Catherine. She bore him a daughter named Anna Petrovna in December 1757 (not to be confused with Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna of Russia, the daughter of Peter I's second marriage).

King Augustus III of Poland died in 1763, so Poland needed to elect a new ruler. Catherine supported Poniatowski as a candidate to become the next king, she sent the Russian army into Poland to avoid possible disputes. Russia invaded Poland on 26 August 1764, threatening to fight, and imposing Poniatowski as king. Poniatowski accepted the throne, and thereby put himself under Catherine's control. News of Catherine's plan spread and Frederick II (others say the Ottoman sultan) warned her that if she tried to conquer Poland by marrying Poniatowski, all of Europe would oppose her, she had no intention of marrying him, having already given birth to Orlov's child and to the Grand Duke Paul by then. She told Poniatowski[citation needed] to marry someone else to remove all suspicion. Poniatowski refused.

Prussia (through the agency of Prince Henry), Russia (under Catherine), and Austria (under Maria Theresa) began preparing the ground for the partitions of Poland; in the first partition, 1772, the three powers split 20,000 square miles (52,000 km2) between them. Russia got territories east of the line connecting, more or less, Riga–Polotsk–Mogilev; in the second partition, in 1793, Russia received the most land, from west of Minsk almost to Kiev and down the river Dnieper, leaving some spaces of steppe down south in front of Ochakov, on the Black Sea. Later uprisings in Poland led to the third partition in 1795, one year before Catherine's death. Poland ceased to exist as an independent nation until 1918, in the aftermath of World War I.

Catherine the Great's natural son by Count Orlov, Aleksey Grigorievich Bobrinsky (11 April 1762 – 20 June 1813 in his estate of Bogoroditsk, near Tula), born three months before the deposition and assassination by the Orlov brothers of her husband Peter III

Grigory Orlov, the grandson of a rebel in the Streltsy Uprising (1698) against Peter the Great, distinguished himself in the Battle of Zorndorf (25 August 1758), receiving three wounds. He represented an opposite to Peter's pro-Prussian sentiment, with which Catherine disagreed. By 1759, Catherine and he had become lovers; no one told Catherine's husband, the Grand Duke Peter. Catherine saw Orlov as very useful, and he became instrumental in the 28 June 1762 coup d’état against her husband, but she preferred to remain the Dowager Empress of Russia, rather than marrying anyone.

Grigory Orlov and his other three brothers found themselves rewarded with titles, money, swords, and other gifts, but Catherine did not marry Grigory, who proved inept at politics and useless when asked for advice, he received a palace in Saint Petersburg when Catherine became Empress.

Grigory Potemkin was involved in the coup d'état of 1762. In 1772, Catherine's close friends informed her of Orlov's affairs with other women, and she dismissed him. By the winter of 1773, the Pugachev revolt had started to threaten. Catherine's son Paul had also started gaining support; both of these trends threatened her power. She called Potemkin for help—mostly military—and he became devoted to her.

In 1772, Catherine wrote to Potemkin. Days earlier, she had found out about an uprising in the Volga region, she appointed General Aleksandr Bibikov to put down the uprising, but she needed Potemkin's advice on military strategy. Potemkin quickly gained positions and awards. Russian poets wrote about his virtues, the court praised him, foreign ambassadors fought for his favour, and his family moved into the palace, he later became the de facto absolute ruler of New Russia, governing its colonisation.

In 1780, the son of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa, Emperor Joseph II, toyed with the idea of determining whether or not to enter an alliance with Russia, and asked to meet Catherine. Potemkin had the task of briefing him and travelling with him to Saint Petersburg. Potemkin also convinced Catherine to expand the universities in Russia to increase the number of scientists.

Potemkin fell very ill in August 1783. Catherine worried he would not finish his work developing the south as he had planned. Potemkin died at the age of 52 in 1791.

At the time of Catherine’s reign, the landowning noble class owned the serfs, who were bound to the land they tilled. Children of serfs were born into serfdom and worked the same land their parents had, the serfs had very limited rights, but they were not exactly slaves. While the state did not technically allow them to own possessions, some serfs were able to accumulate enough wealth to pay for their freedom,[83] the understanding of law in imperial Russia by all sections of society was often weak, confused, or nonexistent, particularly in the provinces where most serfs lived. This is why some serfs were able to do things such as accumulate wealth. To become serfs, people would give up their freedoms to a landowner in exchange for their protection and support in times of hardship; in addition, they would receive land to till, but would be taxed a certain percentage of their crops to give to their landowners. These were the privileges a serf was entitled to and that nobles were bound to carry out. All of this was true before Catherine’s reign, and this is the system she inherited.

Catherine did initiate some changes to serfdom, though. If a noble did not live up to his side of the deal, then the serfs could file complaints against him by following the proper channels of law.[84] Catherine gave them this new right, but in exchange they could no longer appeal directly to her, she did this because she did not want to be bothered by the peasantry, but did not want to give them reason to revolt, either. In this act, though, she unintentionally gave the serfs a legitimate bureaucratic status they had lacked before,[85] some serfs were able to use their new status to their advantage. For example, serfs could apply to be freed if they were under illegal ownership, and non-nobles were not allowed to own serfs,[86] some serfs did apply for freedom and were, surprisingly, successful. In addition, some governors listened to the complaints of serfs and punished nobles, but this was by no means all-inclusive.

Other than these, the rights of a serf were very limited. A landowner could punish his serfs at his discretion, and under Catherine the Great gained the ability to sentence his serfs to hard labour in Siberia, a punishment normally reserved for convicted criminals,[87] the only thing a noble could not do to his serfs was to kill them. The life of a serf belonged to the state. Historically, when the serfs faced problems they could not solve on their own (such as abusive masters), they often appealed to the autocrat, and continued doing so during Catherine’s reign, though she signed legislation prohibiting it,[88] although she did not want to communicate directly with the serfs, she did create some measures to improve their conditions as a class and reduce the size of the institution of serfdom. For example, she took action to limit the number of new serfs; she eliminated many ways for people to become serfs, culminating in the manifesto of 17 March 1775, which prohibited a serf who had once been freed from becoming a serf again.[89] However, she also restricted the freedoms of many peasants, during her reign, Catherine gave away many state-owned peasants to become private serfs (owned by a landowner), and while their ownership changed hands, a serf’s location never did. However, peasants owned by the state generally had more freedoms than those owned by a noble.

While the majority of serfs were farmers bound to the land, a noble could also have his serfs sent away to learn a trade or be educated at a school, in addition to employing them at businesses that paid wages,[90] this happened more often during Catherine’s reign because of the new schools she established. Only in this way could a serf leave the farm for which he was responsible.

The attitude of the serfs towards their autocrat had historically been a positive one.[91] However, if the tsar’s policies were too extreme or too disliked, he was not considered the true tsar; in these cases, it was necessary to replace this “fake” tsar with the “true” tsar, whoever he may be. Because the serfs had no political power, they rioted to get their message across, but usually, if the serfs did not like the policies of the tsar, they saw the nobles as corrupt and evil, preventing the people of Russia from communicating with the well-intentioned tsar and misinterpreting his decrees.[92] However, they were already suspicious of Catherine upon her accession, because she had annulled an act by Peter III that had essentially freed the serfs belonging to the Orthodox Church.[93] Naturally, the serfs did not like it when Catherine tried to take away their right to petition her because they felt as though she had severed their connection to the autocrat, and their power to appeal to her. Far away from the capital, they were also confused as to the circumstances of her accession to the throne.[94]

The peasants were discontented because of many other factors, as well, including crop failure, and epidemics, especially a major epidemic in 1771, the nobles were also imposing a stricter rule than ever, reducing the land of each serf and restricting their freedoms further beginning around 1767.[95] Their discontent led to widespread outbreaks of violence and rioting during Pugachev's Rebellion of 1774, the serfs probably followed someone who was pretending to be the true tsar because of their feelings of disconnection to Catherine and her policies empowering the nobles, but this was not the first time they followed a pretender under Catherine’s reign.[96] Pugachev had made stories about himself acting as a real tsar should, helping the common people, listening to their problems, praying for them, and generally acting saintly, and this helped rally the peasants and serfs, with their very conservative values, to his cause,[97] with all this discontent in mind, Catherine did rule for 10 years before the anger of the serfs boiled over into a rebellion as extensive as Pugachev’s. Under Catherine’s rule, though, despite her enlightened ideals, the serfs were generally unhappy and discontented.

Portrait of Catherine at an advanced age, with the Chesme Column in the background

Though Catherine's life and reign included remarkable personal successes, they ended with two failures, her Swedish cousin (once removed), King Gustav IV Adolph, visited her in September 1796, the Empress's intention being that her granddaughter Alexandra should become Queen of Sweden by marriage. A ball was given at the imperial court on 11 September, when the engagement was supposed to be announced. Gustav Adolph felt pressured to accept the fact that Alexandra would not be converting to Lutheranism, and though he was delighted by the young lady, he refused to appear at the ball and left for Stockholm. Catherine was so irritated at this, her health was affected,[98] she recovered well enough to begin to plan a ceremony where a favourite grandson would supersede her difficult son on the throne, but she died of a stroke before the announcement could be made, just over two months after the engagement ball.

On 16 November [O.S. 5 November] 1796, Catherine rose early in the morning and had her usual morning coffee, soon settling down to work on papers at her study. Her lady's maid, Maria Perekusikhina, had asked the Empress if she had slept well, and Catherine reportedly replied she had not slept so well in a long time.[99] Sometime after 9:00 that morning, Catherine went to her dressing room and collapsed from a stroke while on the toilet.[100] Worried by Catherine's absence, her attendant, Zakhar Zotov, opened the door and peered in. Catherine was sprawled on the floor, her face appeared purplish, her pulse was weak, and her breathing was shallow and laboured.[99] The servants lifted Catherine from the floor and brought her to the bedroom, some 45 minutes later, the royal court's Scottish physician, Dr. John Rogerson, arrived and determined that Catherine had suffered a stroke,[99][101] despite all attempts to revive the Empress, she fell into a coma from which she never recovered. Catherine was given the last rites and died the following evening around 9:45.[101] An autopsy performed on her body the next day confirmed the cause of death as stroke.[102] (Later, several unfounded stories circulated regarding the cause and manner of her death.)

Catherine's undated will, discovered in early 1792 by her secretary Alexander Vasilievich Khrapovitsky among her papers, gave specific instructions should she die: "Lay out my corpse dressed in white, with a golden crown on my head, and on it inscribe my Christian name. Mourning dress is to be worn for six months, and no longer: the shorter the better."[103] In the end, the empress was laid to rest with a gold crown on her head and clothed in a silver brocade dress, on 25 November, the coffin, richly decorated in gold fabric, was placed atop an elevated platform at the Grand Gallery's chamber of mourning, designed and decorated by Antonio Rinaldi.[104][105] According to Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun: "The empress's body lay in state for six weeks in a large and magnificently decorated room in the castle, which was kept lit day and night. Catherine was stretched out on a ceremonial bed surrounded by the coats of arms of all the towns in Russia, her face was left uncovered, and her fair hand rested on the bed. All the ladies, some of whom took turn to watch by the body, would go and kiss this hand, or at least appear to." A description of the Empress's funeral is written in Madame Vigée Le Brun's memoirs. Catherine was buried at the Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg.

Possibly the offspring of Catherine and Stanisław Poniatowski, Anna was born at the Winter Palace between 10 and 11 o'clock;[106] she was named by Empress Elizabeth after her deceased sister, against Catherine's wishes.[107] On 17 December 1757, Anna was baptised and received the Great Cross of the Order of Saint Catherine.[108] Elizabeth served as godmother; she held Anna above the baptismal font and brought Catherine, who did not witness any of the celebrations, and Peter a gift of 60,000 rubles.[107] Elizabeth took Anna and raised the baby herself, as she had done with Paul;[109] in her memoirs, Catherine makes no mention of Anna's death on 8 March 1759,[110] though she was inconsolable and entered a state of shock.[111] Anna's funeral took place on 15 March, at Alexander Nevsky Lavra, after the funeral, Catherine never mentioned her dead daughter again, having always preferred male offspring.[112]

Born at the Winter Palace, he was brought up at Bobriki; his father was Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov. He married Baroness Anna Dorothea von Ungern-Sternberg and had issue. Created Count Bobrinsky in 1796, he died in 1813.

Ivan VI of Russia (born 1740), as a former tsar (reigned as an infant, 1740–1741), represented a potential focus of dissident support for successive rulers of Russia, who held him in prison. When she became empress in 1762 Catherine tightened the conditions of his incarceration, his jailers in the prison of Shlisselburg killed Ivan, as per standing instructions, in the course of an attempt to free him in 1764.

Yemelyan Pugachev (1740/1742–1775) identified himself in 1773 as Tsar Peter III of Russia (Catherine's late husband). His armed rebellion, aiming to seize power and to banish the Empress to a monastery, became a serious menace until crushed in 1774, the authorities had Pugachev executed in Moscow in January 1775.

Princess Tarakanova (1753–1775) declared herself in Paris in 1774 as Elizabeth's daughter by Alexis Razumovsky and as the sister of Pugachev. The Empress Catherine dispatched Alexey Orlov to Italy, where he captured Tarakanova in Livorno. When brought to Russia in 1775, Tarakanova went to prison in the Peter and Paul Fortress, where she died of tuberculosis in December 1775.[114][115] There are rumours that her death was faked and that she was confined to a nunnery in Moscow in 1785, where she died in 1810.[116]

During the eighteenth century, there were no fewer than forty-four pretenders in Russia, twenty-six of which were during Catherine's reign. Pretenders plagued Catherine the Great's reign in a way unmatched by any other period in Russian history, at least seventeen of the twenty-six pretenders during Catherine's reign appeared in one of three clusters; six from 1764–1765, six from 1772–1774, and five from 1782–1786. Pretenders did not plague Catherine's reign because of her sex or nationality since pretenders never threatened other female rulers or rulers of foreign descent in the way that Catherine II was, the rise of pretenders was not related to war or famine as neither appeared consistently with the pretenders. If there tended to be any form of famine during a pretender's rise it was during their claim to power and not inspired by it. Catherine's illegitimate rise to power through the assassination of her husband, Peter III, did not inspire the pretenders since Elizabeth, who came to power in a similar fashion to Catherine, never had the same problem. Evidence suggests that pretenders plagued Catherine's reign for economic reasons. An important correlation between the three clusters is that the economic standing of serfs was declining, the condition of serfs worsened at the start of Catherine's reign because there was a sharp increase, 47%, in the number of peasants on state land and an establishment of a poll tax. The decline of pretenders illustrates the correlation between the conditions of serfs and the appearance of pretenders in the last third of Catherine's reign because she improved legal and economic conditions for the serfs to deter future pretenders, the serfs were not the only social group that suffered from worsening economic conditions. Leading into Catherine's reign both the odnodvortsy and cossacks faced a harsh decline in their economic standing, the odnodvortsy were particularly upset about the decline in their economic standing because they were descendents of wealthy landowning servicemen. The odnodvortsy were angered even more in some regions of Russia as land lords expanded their property claiming odnodvortsy and peasants as serfs, the declining standing of the odnodvortsy and cossacks created motivation to become pretenders especially during the 1760s. Even more importantly the odnodvortsy and cossacks were vital support for pretenders because of their military experience.[117]

At least sixteen pretenders during Catherine's reign claimed that they were the deposed tsar, Peter III. A less common position pretenders claimed during Catherine's reign was that of Ivan VI. Ivan VI was a potential threat to Catherine since he was exiled as an infant and could lay claim to the throne. Peter III was the more popular option for pretenders since there existed legends that he was not actually dead, allowing pretenders to convince discontented Russians they were Peter III. Peter III was also popular among Russians because of his benevolent rule. Pretenders claiming to be Peter III used his popularity among Russians to gain support. Pretenders had to be careful to establish themselves as the ruler they claimed to be without being recognised as a normal mortal and not of royal blood. One popular way to prevent recognition was to claim their right to royalty far from their home as both Emal'Ian Ivanovich Pugachev and the pretender Artem'ev did. Pretenders also had to account for where they had disappeared to for the time since their reported deaths, for example, Pugachev claimed that he spent the eleven years since Peter III's reported death wandering abroad as far as Egypt or Constantinople.[118]

Many Russians believed that tsars and tsarevichs bore special marks on their bodies symbolising their royal status, which became known as royal marks. Four of the pretenders claiming to be Peter III showed royal marks to legitimise their claims, the first fake Peter to have royal marks was Gavrila Kremnev who Lev Evdokimov recognised because of a cross on Kremnev's foot. Lev Evdokimov claimed that he had worked as a chorister at the royal palace and had held the real Peter III in his arms as a child therefore giving credibility to Kremnev's claims, despite Kremnev's marking, he never gained many supporters and was flogged and branded with the words, “deserter and pretender”. The next fake Peter III to show a royal mark of some sort was Fedot Kazin-Bogomolov in 1772, he showed a guard where he was imprisoned a cross on his chest and claimed he had two more on his arm and head allowing him to gain many supporters. The government branded Kazin-Bogomolov despite his markings, the third Peter III with royal marks was the most famous of the four and the most successful pretender of the time, Pugachev. In 1773 Pugachev staged a revealing of his royal identity to a cossack, Eremina Kuritsa, leading other cossacks to challenge Pugachev at dinner, which resulted in him showing scars on his chest and head to the cossacks. Pugachev claimed the scars on his chest were caused from the coup against him and that the scars on his forehead were from smallpox. Pugachev's rational reasoning for his markings caused him to continually gain supporters throughout his stand as a pretender. Unlike the first two pretenders to show royal marks, Pugachev's efforts cost him his life since his punishment was execution, the final pretender during Catherine's reign to reveal royal marks was Makar Mosiakin in 1774. Mosiakin entered a peasant hut claiming to be Peter III and then showed the peasants crosses on his arms, claiming they represented royal inheritance. According to the official report of the Mosiakin he had made the cross marks himself to convince people that he was Peter III and he actually had some success as he managed to gain followers from various villages as he went from house to house.[119]

On a date already set for a week before she died, Catherine had intended to formally announce[98] that Paul would be excluded from the succession, and that the crown would go to her eldest grandson, Alexander (whom she greatly favoured, and who subsequently became the emperor Alexander I in 1801). Her harshness towards Paul probably stemmed as much from political distrust as from what she saw of his character. Keeping Paul in a state of semi-captivity in Gatchina and Pavlovsk, she resolved not to allow her son to dispute or to share in her authority during her lifetime.

Reddaway, W.F. "Documents of Catherine the Great. The Correspondence with Voltaire and the Instruction of 1767 in the English Text of 1768". Cambridge University Press, (England), (1931), Reprint (1971).

Empress and Autocrat of All the Russias
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Emperor of All Russia, Empress of All Russia was the title of the ruler of the Russian Empire from 1721 to 1917. It was created in connection with the victory in the Great Northern War, the suffix of All Russia was transformed from the previous version of All Rus. Article 1 of the Fundamental Laws of the Russian Empire stated that Emperor of All Ru

Coronation of the Russian monarch
–
These elements remained, as Muscovy was transformed first into the Tsardom of Russia and then into the Russian Empire, until the abolition of the monarchy in 1917. As the church and state were one in Imperial Russia, this service invested the Tsars with political legitimacy, however. It was equally perceived as conferring a genuine spiritual benefi

Peter III of Russia
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Peter III was emperor of Russia for six months in 1762. He was born in Kiel as Karl Peter Ulrich, the child of Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp and Anna Petrovna. The German Peter could hardly speak Russian and pursued a strongly pro-Prussian policy and his death could also have been the result of a drunken brawl with his bodyguard when

Paul I of Russia
–
Paul I reigned as Emperor of Russia between 1796 and 1801. His reign lasted five years, ending with his assassination by conspirators and his most important achievement was the adoption of the laws of succession to the Russian throne - rules that lasted until the end of the Romanov dynasty and of the Russian Empire. He became de facto Grand Master

Szczecin
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Szczecin is the capital city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea, it is a major seaport, as of June 2011, the population was 407,811. Szczecin is located on the Oder, south of the Szczecin Lagoon, the city is situated along the southwestern shore of Dąbie Lake, on both sides of the Oder and on several large isl

4.
Sedina Monument (1899–1913). Sedina was a personification of Stettin. The statue was scrapped for copper in 1942, and after the war it was replaced with an anchor. In 2012 the authorities approved plans for a reconstruction of the statue.

Pomerania
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Pomerania is a region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Germany and Poland. The name derives from the Slavic po more, meaning by the sea, Pomerania stretches roughly from the Recknitz river in the west to the Vistula river in the east. The largest Pomeranian islands are Rügen, Usedom/Uznam and Wolin, the large

Kingdom of Prussia
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It was the driving force behind the unification of Germany in 1871 and was the leading state of the German Empire until its dissolution in 1918. Although it took its name from the region called Prussia, it was based in the Margraviate of Brandenburg, the kings of Prussia were from the House of Hohenzollern. Prussia was a power from the time it beca

Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th larges

Saint Petersburg
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Saint Petersburg is Russias second-largest city after Moscow, with five million inhabitants in 2012, and an important Russian port on the Baltic Sea. It is politically incorporated as a federal subject, situated on the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea, it was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May 271703. In 1914, th

3.
Palace Square backed by the General Staff arch and building, as the main square of the Russian Empire it was the setting of many events of historic significance

4.
Map of Saint Petersburg, 1903

Peter and Paul Cathedral
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The Peter and Paul Cathedral is a Russian Orthodox cathedral located inside the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg, Russia. It is the first and oldest landmark in St. Petersburg, both the cathedral and the fortress were originally built under Peter the Great and designed by Domenico Trezzini. The cathedrals bell tower is the worlds tallest O

1.
Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral, Saint Petersburg.

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Tombs inside the cathedral

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Tombstones marking the burial of Tsar Nicholas II and his family in St. Catherine's Chapel

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Peter and Paul Cathedral.

German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other member

1.
Old Frisian (Alt-Friesisch)

2.
The widespread popularity of the Bible translated into German by Martin Luther helped establish modern German

Dynasty
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A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a feudal or monarchical system but sometimes also appearing in elective republics. The dynastic family or lineage may be known as a house, historians periodize the histories of many sovereign states, such as Ancient Egypt, the Carolingian Empire and Imperial China, us

House of Romanov
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The Romanovs achieved prominence as boyars of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, later the Tsardom of Russia. In 1613, following years of interregnum, the zemsky sobor offered the Russian crown to Mikhail Romanov and he acceded to the throne as Michael I, becoming the first Tsar of Russia from the House of Romanov. His grandson Peter I established the Russ

House of Ascania
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The House of Ascania is a dynasty of German rulers. It is also known as the House of Anhalt, after Anhalt, the Ascanians are named after Ascania Castle, Schloss Askanien, which is located near and named after Aschersleben. The castle was seat of the County of Ascania, a title that was subsumed into the titles of the princes of Anhalt. The earliest

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House of Ascania

Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst
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Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst was a German prince of the House of Ascania. He was a ruler of the Principality of Anhalt-Dornburg, then, from 1742 and he was also a Prussian Generalfeldmarschall, but is best known for being the father of Catherine the Great of Russia. Christian August was the son of John Louis I, Prince of Anhalt-Dornbur

1.
Portrait of Christian August by Antoin Pesne, c. 1746

Johanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp
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Johanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp was a princess of the House of Holstein-Gottorp and later the Princess of Anhalt-Zerbst. She is best known as the mother of Catherine the Great of Russia and she was born at Gottorp, the daughter of Christian August, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp and Albertina Frederica of Baden-Durlach. She was the Regent of Anhalt

1.
A portrait of Johanna, presumably by Antoin Pesne, c.1746

2.
Joanna Elisabeth's letter to her daughter Catherine, 1746

Russian Orthodox Church
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The Russian Orthodox Church, alternatively legally known as the Moscow Patriarchate, is one of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches, in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox patriarchates. The Primate of the ROC is the Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus and it also exercises ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the autonomous Church of Japan a

Lutheranism
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Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestant Christianity which identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German friar, ecclesiastical reformer and theologian. Luthers efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched the Protestant Reformation in the German-speaking territories of the Holy Roman Empire. Lutheranism

3.
The University of Jena around 1600. Jena was the center of Gnesio-Lutheran activity during the controversies leading up to the Formula of Concord.

Russian language
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Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and b

Russian Empire
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The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until it was overthrown by the short-lived February Revolution in 1917. One of the largest empires in history, stretching over three continents, the Russian Empire was surpassed in landmass only by the British and Mongol empires. The rise of the Russian Empire happened in association with the de

1.
Peter the Great officially renamed the Tsardom of Russia the Russian Empire in 1721, and himself its first emperor. He instituted the sweeping reforms and oversaw the transformation of Russia into a major European power.

Peter the Great
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Peter the Great, Peter I or Peter Alexeyevich ruled the Tsardom of Russia and later the Russian Empire from 7 May 1682 until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his elder half-brother, Ivan V. Through a number of successful wars he expanded the Tsardom into a larger empire that became a major European power. He led a revolution that replaced

4.
Portrait of Peter I by Godfrey Kneller, 1698. This portrait was Peter's gift to the King of England.

Great power
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A great power is a sovereign state that is recognized as having the ability and expertise to exert its influence on a global scale. International relations theorists have posited that great power status can be characterized into power capabilities, spatial aspects, while some nations are widely considered to be great powers, there is no definitive

Grigory Orlov
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Count Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov was the favorite of Empress Catherine the Great of Russia who presumably fathered her son. He led the coup which overthrew Catherines husband Peter III of Russia, for some years, he was virtually co-ruler with her, but his repeated infidelities and the enmity of Catherines other advisers led to his fall from power.

Grigory Potemkin
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Prince Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin-Tavricheski was a Russian military leader, statesman, nobleman and favourite of Catherine the Great. He died during negotiations over the Treaty of Jassy, which ended a war with the Ottoman Empire that he had overseen, Potemkin was born into a family of middle-income noble landowners. He first attracted Cather

1.
Non-contemporary portrait of Potemkin in later life

2.
A probably later portrait of a 35-year-old Potemkin at the height of his love affair with Catherine

Alexander Suvorov
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Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov was a Russian military leader and considered a national hero. He was the Count of Rymnik, Count of the Holy Roman Empire, Prince of Italy, Suvorov was born in Moscow in 1729. He studied military history as a boy and joined the Imperial Russian Army at the age of 17. During the Seven Years War he was promoted to colonel

3.
Suvorov established a fearsome reputation in operations against the Turks and Poles before the wars with Revolutionary France. He performed well on the Italian and Swiss fronts in 1799.

4.
Exiled Suvorov receiving the Emperor's order to lead the Russian army against Napoleon.

Pyotr Rumyantsev
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Count Pyotr Alexandrovich Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky was one of the foremost Russian generals of the 18th century. He governed Little Russia in the name of Empress Catherine the Great from the abolition of the Cossack Hetmanate in 1764 until Catherines death 32 years later, monuments to his victories include Kagul Obelisk in Tsarskoe Selo, Rumyantsev Ob

Fyodor Ushakov
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Fyodor Fyodorovich Ushakov was the most illustrious Russian naval commander and admiral of the 18th century. Ushakov was born in the village of Burnakovo in the Yaroslavl gubernia, on 15 February 1761, he signed up for the Russian Navy in Saint Petersburg. After training, he served on a galley in the Baltic Fleet, in 1768 he was transferred to the

Crimean Khanate
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The Crimean Khanate was a Turkic vassal state of the Ottoman Empire from 1478 to 1774, the longest-lived of the Turkic khanates that succeeded the empire of the Golden Horde. The khanate was located in present-day Russia and Ukraine, Ottoman forces under Gedik Ahmet Pasha conquered all of the Crimean peninsula and joined it to the khanate in 1475.

Ottoman Empire
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After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans the Ottoman Beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror, at the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal sta

Russo-Turkish wars
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The Russo-Turkish wars were a series of wars fought between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 20th centuries. It was one of the longest series of conflicts in European history. The latters pro-Ottoman policy caused discontent among many Ukrainian Cossacks, who would elect Ivan Samoilovich as a sole Hetman of all Ukraine

1.
Russian and Cossack troops take the fortress of Khadjibey, defeating the Ottomans and thus providing the impetus to found Odessa.

2.
Ottoman losses in the Balkans after the Crimean War, from Literary and Historical Atlas of Europe, by J. G. Bartholomew, 1912

Novorossiya
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Novorossiya, literally New Russia but sometimes called South Russia, is a historical term of the Russian Empire denoting a region north of the Black Sea. It was formed as a new province of Russia in 1764 from military frontier regions along with parts of the southern Hetmanate in preparation for war with the Ottomans. It was further expanded by the

Black Sea
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The Black Sea is a body of water between Eastern Europe and Western Asia, bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. It is supplied by a number of rivers, such as the Danube, Dnieper, Rioni, Southern Bug. The Black Sea has an area of 436,400 km2, a depth of 2,212 m. It is constrained by the Pontic Mountains to the south and

Azov Sea
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The Sea of Azov is a sea in Eastern Europe. To the south it is linked by the narrow Strait of Kerch to the Black Sea, the sea is bounded in the north by mainland Ukraine, in the east by Russia, and in the west by the Crimean Peninsula. The Don and Kuban are the rivers that flow into it. The Sea of Azov is the shallowest sea in the world, there is a

Partitions of Poland
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The First Partition of Poland was decided on August 5,1772. Two decades later, Russian and Prussian troops entered the Commonwealth again, Austria did not participate in the Second Partition. The Third Partition of Poland took place on October 24,1795, with this partition, the Commonwealth ceased to exist. In Polish, there are two words for the two

4.
Russian general Krechetnikov presents the manifest of Catherine the Great to the people of Podolia

Russian colonisation of the Americas
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The Russian colonization of the Americas covers the period from 1732 to 1867, when the Russian Empire laid claim to northern Pacific Coast territories in the Americas. Russian colonial possessions in the Americas are collectively known as Russian America, Russian expansion eastward began in 1552, and in 1639 Russian explorers reached the Pacific Oc

2.
A map depicting the territory of Alaska in 1867, immediately after the Alaska Purchase

Russian America
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Russian America was the name of the Russian colonial possessions in North America from 1733 to 1867. Settlements spanned parts of what are now the US states of California, Alaska, many of its possessions were abandoned in the 19th century. In 1867 Russia sold its last remaining possessions to the United States for $7.2 million, the earliest written

3.
Bering Strait, where Russia's east coast comes closest to Alaska's west coast

4.
Alexander Andreyevich Baranov, called "Lord of Alaska" by Hector Chevigny, played an active role in the Russian–American Company and was the first governor of Russian America.

Guberniya
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A governorate, or a guberniya, was a major and principal administrative subdivision of the Russian Empire and the early Russian SFSR. The term is translated as government, governorate, or province. A governorate was ruled by a governor, a word borrowed from Latin gubernator, sometimes the term guberniya was informally used to refer to the office of

1.
Division of Russia into eight guberniyas in 1708

Serfdom in Russia
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The term serf, in the sense of an unfree peasant of the Russian Empire, is the usual translation of krepostnoi krestyanin. The origins of serfdom in Russia are traced to Kievan Rus in the 11th century, Legal documents of the epoch, such as Russkaya Pravda, distinguished several degrees of feudal dependency of peasants. Serfdom became the dominant f

4.
Kateryna, painting of a Ukrainian serf girl by Taras Shevchenko himself born a serf.

Cossacks
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Cossacks are a group of predominantly East Slavic-speaking people who became known as members of democratic, self-governing, semi-military communities, predominantly located in Ukraine and in Russia. The origins of the first Cossacks are disputed, though the 1710 Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk claimed Khazar origin, the Zaporizhian Sich were a vassal

1.
Italian map of «European Tartaria» (1684). Dnieper Ukraine is marked as « Ukraine or the land of Zaporozhian Cossacks (Vkraina o Paese de Cossachi di Zaporowa)». On the east there is « Ukraine or the land of Don Cossacks, who are subjects of Muscovy (Vkraina ouero Paese de Cossachi Tanaiti Soggetti al Moscouita)».

Russian nobility
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The Russian nobility arose in the 14th century. Its members staffed most of the Russian government apparatus until the February Revolution of 1917, the Russian word for nobility, dvoryanstvo, derives from the Polish word dwor, meaning the court of a prince or duke and later, the court of the tsar or emperor. A nobleman is called a dvoryanin, pre-So

Classicism
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Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. Classicism is a genre of philosophy, expressing itself in literature, architecture, art, and music, which has Ancient Greek and Roman sources. It was p

The Enlightenment
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The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement which dominated the world of ideas in Europe during the 18th century, The Century of Philosophy. In France, the doctrines of les Lumières were individual liberty and religious tolerance in opposition to an absolute monarchy. French historians traditionally place the Enlightenment between 1715, the year

Russian Enlightenment
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During this time, the first Russian university was founded, a library, a theatre, a public museum, as well as relatively independent press. Like other enlightened despots, Catherine the Great played a key role in fostering the arts, sciences, the Pugachev Rebellion and French Revolution may have shattered the illusions of rapid political change, bu

Smolny Institute
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The Smolny Institute is a Palladian edifice in St Petersburg that has played a major part in the history of Russia. Petersburg and then the Novodevichii Institute for the daughters of commoners. ”The Smolny was Russias first educational establishment for women, a nice garden and iron-work grille around the institute date from the early 19th century

Female education
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Female education is a catch-all term for a complex set of issues and debates surrounding education for girls and women. It includes areas of gender equality and access to education, while the feminist movement certainly promoted the importance of the issues attached to female education the discussion is wide-ranging and by no means narrowly defined

4.
Page from an illuminated manuscript from the late 10th century. The three nuns in front are all holding books, and the middle one appears to be teaching, gesturing to make a point.

Louis Caravaque
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Louis Caravaque was a French portrait painter who worked in Russia. Caravaque was born in Marseilles, in a family from Gascony and he went to Russia, and painted a portrait of Peter the Great at Astrakhan in 1716. It was engraved by Massard and by Langlois and he painted the Tsar again in 1723, and later did portraits of the Empresses Anne and Eliz

Royal family
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A royal family is the immediate family of a king or queen regnant, and sometimes his or her extended family. However, in common parlance members of any family which reigns by hereditary right are often referred to as royalty or royals and it is also customary in some circles to refer to the extended relations of a deposed monarch and his or her des

1.
The Royal Family of France in classical costume during the reign of Louis XIV.

2.
Redrawing of the epitaph of ichirgu boila Mostich. Translation (the title Tsar is enclosed): “Here lies Mostich who was ichirgu-boil during the reigns of Tsar Simeon and Tsar Peter. At the age of eighty he forsook the rank of ichirgu boila and all of his possessions and became a monk. And so ended his life.” Now in the Museum of Preslav.

3.
Boswell's Edinburgh. In his journals he often mentions using the "Back Stairs" behind Parliament Close. His birthplace was the family's town house on the east side of the close, just around the corner at the top of the steps.

1.
On this marriage certificate, made out in 1907 in Warsaw (then part of the Russian Empire), the month is given as "November/December", and the day as "23/6". The Julian date 23 November corresponded to the Gregorian 6 December.

1.
Constitutional monarchies with representative parliamentary systems are shown in green. Other constitutional monarchies are shown in light green.

LIST OF IMAGES

1.
Empress and Autocrat of All the Russias
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Emperor of All Russia, Empress of All Russia was the title of the ruler of the Russian Empire from 1721 to 1917. It was created in connection with the victory in the Great Northern War, the suffix of All Russia was transformed from the previous version of All Rus. Article 1 of the Fundamental Laws of the Russian Empire stated that Emperor of All Russia is an autocratic, to obey his supreme authority, not only out of fear but out of conscience as well, God himself commands. The article points to the fact that Russia had an unrestricted monarchy, the full title of the emperor in the 20th century, The title of the Emperor of All Russia was introduced to Peter the Great. On November 2,1721 Peter I accepted the title, since then the Russian State was referred to as the Russian Empire

2.
Coronation of the Russian monarch
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These elements remained, as Muscovy was transformed first into the Tsardom of Russia and then into the Russian Empire, until the abolition of the monarchy in 1917. As the church and state were one in Imperial Russia, this service invested the Tsars with political legitimacy, however. It was equally perceived as conferring a genuine spiritual benefit that mystically wedded sovereign to subjects, as such, it was similar in purpose to other European coronation ceremonies from the medieval era. Even when the capital was located at St. Petersburg. The last coronation service in Russia was held on 26 May 1896 for Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra Feodorovna, the Russian Imperial regalia survived the subsequent Russian Revolution and the Communist period, and are currently on exhibit in a museum at the Kremlin Armoury. Starting with the reign of Ivan IV, the ruler of Russia was known as Tsar rather than Grand Prince and this continued until 1721, during the reign of Peter I, when the title was formally changed to Imperator. However, the term Tsar remained the title for the Russian ruler despite the formal change of style, thus this article utilizes that term. In medieval Europe, the anointed Christian ruler was viewed as a persona, part priest and part layman. The Russian Orthodox Church considered the Tsar to be wedded to his subjects in the Orthodox coronation service, sacred and secular, church and state, God and government were all welded together by the coronation service in the person of the anointed Tsar—or so many Russians believed. Since the newly ascended sovereign was permitted all the privileges of rule immediately upon his accession, instead, one or more years might be permitted to elapse between the initial accession of a Tsar and the ceremony itself. This allowed the court to finish its mourning for the new sovereigns predecessor, as in most European monarchies, the Tsars of Russia retained a sizable collection of Imperial regalia, some of which was used in their coronation ceremonies. Although Russian legend held that it had given to Vladimir Monomakh by the Byzantine emperor Constantine IX. Peters wife, who succeeded him as Catherine I, was the first to wear this type of diadem. 72-carat red spinel from China, the crown was produced in a record two months and weighted only 2.3 kg. This crown was used in all coronations from Paul I to Nicholas II—although the latter tried to replace it with Monomakhs Crown for his ceremony. It survived the subsequent revolution, and is considered to be one of the treasures of the Romanov dynasty. The Silk Imperial Crown of Russia was a coronation gift of the Russian Empire at the coronation of Nicholas II. Nicholas II was the first and only monarch to be presented with such a coronation gift. It was not intended as ceremonial regalia, but as private Imperial property as a memento to his coronation event, a smaller crown, virtually identical in appearance and workmanship to the Great Imperial Crown, was manufactured for the crowning of the Tsars consort

3.
Peter III of Russia
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Peter III was emperor of Russia for six months in 1762. He was born in Kiel as Karl Peter Ulrich, the child of Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp and Anna Petrovna. The German Peter could hardly speak Russian and pursued a strongly pro-Prussian policy and his death could also have been the result of a drunken brawl with his bodyguard when he was being held captive after Catherines coup. Peter was born in Kiel, in the duchy of Holstein-Gottorp and his parents were Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, and Anna Petrovna. His mother died three months after his birth, in 1739, Peters father died, and he became Duke of Holstein-Gottorp as Charles Peter Ulrich at the age of 11. When his mother Annas younger sister, Elizabeth, became Empress of Russia, she brought Peter from Germany to Russia, previously in 1742, the 14-year-old Peter was proclaimed King of Finland during the Russo-Swedish War, when Russian troops held Finland. This proclamation was based on his rights to territories held by his childless great-uncle. About the same time, in October 1742, he was chosen by the Swedish parliament to become heir presumptive to the Swedish throne and it has been reported that the underage Peters succession rights to Sweden were renounced on his behalf. Also in November, Karl Peter Ulrich converted to Eastern Orthodoxy under the name of Peter Fedorovich, Empress Elizabeth arranged for Peter to marry his second cousin, Sophia Augusta Frederica, daughter of Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst and Johanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp. The young princess formally converted to Russian Orthodoxy and took the name Ekaterina Alexeievna and they married on 21 August 1745. The marriage was not a one, but produced one son, the future Emperor Paul. Catherine later claimed that Paul was not fathered by Peter, that, in fact, during the sixteen years of their residence in Oranienbaum, Catherine took numerous lovers, while her husband did the same in the beginning. The classical view of Peters character is drawn out of the memoirs of his wife. She described him as an idiot, drunkard from Holstein, good-for-nothing etc and this portrait of Peter can be found in most history books, including 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica, There have been many attempts to revise the traditional characterisation of Peter and his policies. Currently, a newly established union is working on a project to build a memorial for Peter III in Kiel, after Peter succeeded to the Russian throne, he withdrew Russian forces from the Seven Years War and concluded a peace treaty with Prussia. He gave up Russian conquests in Prussia and offered 12,000 troops to make an alliance with Frederick II of Prussia, Russia thus switched from an enemy of Prussia to an ally — Russian troops withdrew from Berlin and marched against the Austrians. This dramatically shifted the balance of power in Europe, suddenly handing the delighted Frederick the initiative, Frederick recaptured southern Silesia and subsequently forced Austria to the negotiating table. As Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, Peter planned war against Denmark in order to parts of Schleswig to his Duchy

4.
Paul I of Russia
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Paul I reigned as Emperor of Russia between 1796 and 1801. His reign lasted five years, ending with his assassination by conspirators and his most important achievement was the adoption of the laws of succession to the Russian throne - rules that lasted until the end of the Romanov dynasty and of the Russian Empire. He became de facto Grand Master of the Order of Hospitallers, Paul was born in the Palace of Empress Elizabeth in Saint Petersburg. He was the son of the Grand Duchess Catherine, later Empress Catherine the Great, who was the wife of Elizabeths heir and nephew, the Grand Duke Peter, later Emperor Peter III. During his infancy, Paul was taken immediately from his mother by the Empress Elizabeth, as a boy, he was reported to be intelligent and good-looking. His pug-nosed facial features in later life are attributed to an attack of typhus, some claim that his mother Catherine hated him, and was restrained from putting him to death. Paul was put in the charge of a governor, Nikita Ivanovich Panin. It is interesting to note that Panins nephew went on to one of Pauls assassins. The Russian Imperial court, first of Elizabeth and then of Catherine, was not a home for a lonely, needy. His tutor, Poroshin, complained that he was always in a hurry, the use made of his name by the rebel Yemelyan Pugachev, who impersonated his father Peter, tended no doubt to render Pauls position more difficult. On the birth of his first child in 1777 the Empress gave him an estate, Paul and his wife gained leave to travel through western Europe in 1781–1782. In 1783 the Empress granted him another estate at Gatchina, where he was allowed to maintain a brigade of soldiers whom he drilled on the Prussian model, an unpopular stance at the time. Catherine the Great and her son and heir, the future Paul I, the aunt of Catherines husband, Empress Elizabeth, took up the child as a passing fancy. Elizabeth proved an obsessive but incapable caretaker, as she had raised no children of her own, Paul was supervised by a variety of caregivers. Roderick McGrew briefly relates the neglect to which the infant heir was sometimes subject, On one occasion he fell out of his crib, even after Elizabeths death, relations with Catherine hardly improved. Paul was often jealous of the favours she would shower upon her lovers, in one instance the empress gave to one of her court favourites fifty thousand Rubles on her birthday, while Paul received a cheap watch. Pauls early isolation from his mother created a distance between them which later events would reinforce and she never considered inviting him to share her power in governing Russia. And once Pauls son Alexander was born, it appeared that she had found a suitable heir

5.
Szczecin
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Szczecin is the capital city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea, it is a major seaport, as of June 2011, the population was 407,811. Szczecin is located on the Oder, south of the Szczecin Lagoon, the city is situated along the southwestern shore of Dąbie Lake, on both sides of the Oder and on several large islands between the western and eastern branches of the river. The citys recorded history began in the 8th century as a Slavic Pomeranian stronghold, in the 12th century, when Szczecin had become one of Pomeranias main urban centres, it lost its independence to Piast Poland, the Duchy of Saxony, the Holy Roman Empire and Denmark. At the same time, the House of Griffins established themselves as rulers, the population was Christianized. The native Slavic population was subjected to discrimination and Germanization in the following centuries, between 1237 and 1243, the town was rebuilt, granted extensive autonomy rights and eventually joined the Hanseatic League. After the Treaty of Stettin in 1630, the town came under the control of the Swedish Empire, in the late-19th century Stettin became an industrial town, vastly increasing in size and population, and served as a major port for Berlin. During the Nazi era, opposition groups and minorities were persecuted and treated as enemies, by the end of World War II Stettins status was in doubt, and the Soviet occupation authorities at first appointed officials from the citys almost entirely German pre-war population. In July 1945, however, Polish authorities were permitted to take power, Stettin was renamed Szczecin and became part of the newly established the Polish Peoples Republic, and from 1989 the Republic of Poland. From 1999 onwards, Szczecin has served as the site of the headquarters of NATOs Multinational Corps Northeast, the names Szczecin and Stettin are of Slavic origin, though the exact etymology is the subject of ongoing research. Other medieval names for the town are Burstaborg and Burstenburgh and these names, which literally mean brush burgh, are likely derived from the translation of the citys Slavic name. The recorded history of Szczecin began in the century, when West Slavs settled Pomerania. Since the 9th century, the stronghold was fortified and expanded toward the Oder bank, Mieszko I of Poland took control of Pomerania between 960 and 967, and the region with the city of Szczecin became part of Poland in 967. Subsequent Polish rulers, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Liutician federation all aimed to control the territory, after the decline of the neighbouring regional centre Wolin in the 12th century, the city became one of the more important and powerful seaports of the Baltic Sea. In a campaign in the winter of 1121–1122, Bolesław III Wrymouth, the inhabitants were Christianized by two missions of Bishop Otto of Bamberg in 1124 and 1128. At this time, the first Christian church of Saints Peter, Polish minted coins were commonly used in trade in this period. The population of the city at that time is estimated to be at around 5, Polish rule ended with Boleslaws death in 1138. There, a Polish contingent supplied by Mieszko III the Old joined the crusaders, however, the citizens had placed crosses around the fortifications, indicating they already had been Christianised

Szczecin
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Top: Market; Old Town Hall, The Oder River Middle: National Sea Museum, PAZIM building Bottom: Ducal Castle, St James' Cathedral, Virgin Tower
Szczecin
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The city's fortifications, as seen in 1642
Szczecin
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Stettin in the late 19th century.
Szczecin
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Sedina Monument (1899–1913). Sedina was a personification of Stettin. The statue was scrapped for copper in 1942, and after the war it was replaced with an anchor. In 2012 the authorities approved plans for a reconstruction of the statue.

6.
Pomerania
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Pomerania is a region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Germany and Poland. The name derives from the Slavic po more, meaning by the sea, Pomerania stretches roughly from the Recknitz river in the west to the Vistula river in the east. The largest Pomeranian islands are Rügen, Usedom/Uznam and Wolin, the largest Pomeranian city is Gdańsk, or, when using a narrower definition of the region, Szczecin. Outside its urban areas, Pomerania is characterized by farmland, dotted with lakes, forests. The region was affected by post–World War I and II border and population shifts. Pomerania is the area along the Bay of Pomerania of the Baltic Sea between the rivers Recknitz in the west and Vistula in the east and it formerly reached perhaps as far south as the Noteć river, but since the 13th century its southern boundary has been placed further north. Most of the region is coastal lowland, being part of the North European Plain, but its southern, hilly parts belong to the Baltic Ridge, within this ridge, a chain of moraine-dammed lakes constitutes the Pomeranian Lake District. The soil is rather poor, sometimes sandy or marshy. The western coastline is jagged, with many peninsulas and islands enclosing numerous bays, Łebsko and several other lakes were formerly bays, but have been cut off from the sea. The easternmost coastline along the Gdańsk Bay and Vistula Lagoon, has the Hel peninsula, the Pomeranian region has the following administrative divisions, Hither Pomerania in northeastern Germany, stretching from the Recknitz river to the Oder–Neisse line. This region is part of the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The southernmost part of historical Vorpommern is now in Brandenburg, while its eastern parts are now in Poland. Vorpommern comprises the regions inhabited by Slavic tribes Rugians and Volinians, otherwise the Principality of Rügen. The West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland, stretching from the Oder–Neisse line to the Wieprza river, the Pomeranian Voivodeship, with similar borders to Pomerelia, stretching from the Wieprza river to the Vistula delta in the vicinity of Gdańsk. The northern half of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, comprising most of Chełmno Land, the bulk of Farther Pomerania is included within the modern West Pomeranian Voivodeship, but its easternmost parts now constitute the northwest of Pomeranian Voivodeship. Parts of Pomerania and surrounding regions have constituted a euroregion since 1995, the Pomerania euroregion comprises Hither Pomerania and Uckermark in Germany, West Pomerania in Poland, and Scania in Sweden. Pomerania was first mentioned in a document of 1046, referring to a Zemuzil dux Bomeranorum. Pomerania is mentioned repeatedly in the chronicles of Adam of Bremen, the term West Pomerania is ambiguous, since it may refer to either Hither Pomerania or to the West Pomeranian Voivodeship

7.
Kingdom of Prussia
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It was the driving force behind the unification of Germany in 1871 and was the leading state of the German Empire until its dissolution in 1918. Although it took its name from the region called Prussia, it was based in the Margraviate of Brandenburg, the kings of Prussia were from the House of Hohenzollern. Prussia was a power from the time it became a kingdom, through its predecessor, Brandenburg-Prussia. Prussia continued its rise to power under the guidance of Frederick II, more known as Frederick the Great. After the might of Prussia was revealed it was considered as a power among the German states. Throughout the next hundred years Prussia went on to win many battles and it was because of its power that Prussia continuously tried to unify all the German states under its rule. Attempts at creation of a federation remained unsuccessful and the German Confederation collapsed in 1866 when war ensued between its two most powerful states, Prussia and Austria. The North German Confederation which lasted from 1867–1871, created a union between the Prussian-aligned states while Austria and most of Southern Germany remained independent. The North German Confederation was seen as more of an alliance of military strength in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War, the German Empire lasted from 1871–1918 with the successful unification of all the German states under Prussian hegemony. This was due to the defeat of Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, in 1871, Germany unified into a single country, minus Austria and Switzerland, with Prussia the dominant power. Prussia is considered the predecessor of the unified German Reich. The Kingdom left a significant cultural legacy, today notably promoted by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, in 1415 a Hohenzollern Burgrave came from the south to the March of Brandenburg and took control of the area as elector. In 1417 the Hohenzollern was made an elector of the Holy Roman Empire, after the Polish wars, the newly established Baltic towns of the German states including Prussia, suffered many economic setbacks. Many of the Prussian towns could not even afford to attend political meetings outside of Prussia, the towns were poverty stricken, with even the largest town, Danzig, having to borrow money from elsewhere to pay for trade. Poverty in these towns was partly caused by Prussias neighbors, who had established and developed such a monopoly on trading that these new towns simply could not compete and these issues led to feuds, wars, trade competition and invasions. However, the fall of these gave rise to the nobility, separated the east and the west. It was clear in 1440 how different Brandenburg was from the other German territories, not only did it face partition from within but also the threat of its neighbors. It prevented the issue of partition by enacting the Dispositio Achillea which instilled the principle of primogeniture to both the Brandenburg and Franconian territories, the second issue was solved through expansion

8.
Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church

9.
Saint Petersburg
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Saint Petersburg is Russias second-largest city after Moscow, with five million inhabitants in 2012, and an important Russian port on the Baltic Sea. It is politically incorporated as a federal subject, situated on the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea, it was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May 271703. In 1914, the name was changed from Saint Petersburg to Petrograd, in 1924 to Leningrad, between 1713 and 1728 and 1732–1918, Saint Petersburg was the capital of imperial Russia. In 1918, the government bodies moved to Moscow. Saint Petersburg is one of the cities of Russia, as well as its cultural capital. The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Saint Petersburg is home to The Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world. A large number of consulates, international corporations, banks. Swedish colonists built Nyenskans, a fortress, at the mouth of the Neva River in 1611, in a then called Ingermanland. A small town called Nyen grew up around it, Peter the Great was interested in seafaring and maritime affairs, and he intended to have Russia gain a seaport in order to be able to trade with other maritime nations. He needed a better seaport than Arkhangelsk, which was on the White Sea to the north, on May 1703121703, during the Great Northern War, Peter the Great captured Nyenskans, and soon replaced the fortress. On May 271703, closer to the estuary 5 km inland from the gulf), on Zayachy Island, he laid down the Peter and Paul Fortress, which became the first brick and stone building of the new city. The city was built by conscripted peasants from all over Russia, tens of thousands of serfs died building the city. Later, the city became the centre of the Saint Petersburg Governorate, Peter moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in 1712,9 years before the Treaty of Nystad of 1721 ended the war, he referred to Saint Petersburg as the capital as early as 1704. During its first few years, the city developed around Trinity Square on the bank of the Neva, near the Peter. However, Saint Petersburg soon started to be built out according to a plan, by 1716 the Swiss Italian Domenico Trezzini had elaborated a project whereby the city centre would be located on Vasilyevsky Island and shaped by a rectangular grid of canals. The project was not completed, but is evident in the layout of the streets, in 1716, Peter the Great appointed French Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond as the chief architect of Saint Petersburg. In 1724 the Academy of Sciences, University and Academic Gymnasium were established in Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great, in 1725, Peter died at the age of fifty-two. His endeavours to modernize Russia had met opposition from the Russian nobility—resulting in several attempts on his life

10.
Peter and Paul Cathedral
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The Peter and Paul Cathedral is a Russian Orthodox cathedral located inside the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg, Russia. It is the first and oldest landmark in St. Petersburg, both the cathedral and the fortress were originally built under Peter the Great and designed by Domenico Trezzini. The cathedrals bell tower is the worlds tallest Orthodox bell tower, since the belfry is not standalone, but an integral part of the main building, the cathedral is sometimes considered the highest Orthodox Church in the world. There is another Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul Church in St. Petersburg, the current building, the first stone church in St. Petersburg, was designed by Trezzini and built between 1712 and 1733. Its gold-painted spire reaches a height of 123 metres and features at its top an angel holding a cross and this angel is one of the most important symbols of St. Petersburg. The cathedrals architecture also features a unique iconostasis, however, at St. Peter and Paul, the iconostasis rises to form a sort of tower over the sanctuary. The cathedral has a typical Flemish carillon, a gift of the Flemish city of Mechelen, the cathedral is dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul, the patron saints of the fortress. The current cathedral is the one on the site. The first, built soon after Peters founding of the city, was consecrated by Archbishop Iov of Novgorod the Great in April 1704, the cathedral was the cathedral church of the city until 1859 The current cathedral church of St. Petersburg is the Kazan Cathedral on Nevsky Prospect. The cathedral was closed in 1919 and turned into a museum in 1924 and it is still officially a museum, religious services, however, resumed in 2000. The cathedral houses the remains of almost all the Russian emperors and empresses from Peter the Great to Nicholas II and his family, among the emperors and empresses buried here was Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia for 34 years. Of the post-Petrine rulers, only Peter II and Ivan VI are not buried here, Peter II is buried in the Cathedral of Michael the Archangel in the Moscow Kremlin, Ivan VI was executed and buried in the fortress of Shlisselburg or Kholmogory. On September 28,2006,78 years after her death, Maria Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, was reinterred in the Cathedral of St Peter and Paul. Wife of Tsar Alexander III, and mother of Nicholas II, in 2005, the governments of Denmark and Russia agreed that the empresss remains should be returned to Saint Petersburg in accordance with her wish to be interred next to her husband. The bell tower is the dominant feature of cathedral and the fortress. It serves several functions as part of the structure, It is an architectural symbol and it is a part of the imperial tomb - the tombs are on the ground floor. It is a lightning rod protecting the cathedral and it is a viewing platform upon which excursions meet each hour from 12,00 till 18,00. It houses a carillon upon which concerts are periodically performed, when renovators were cleaning the angel on the spire in 1997, they found a note in a bottle left in one of the folds of the angels gown

11.
German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form

12.
Dynasty
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A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a feudal or monarchical system but sometimes also appearing in elective republics. The dynastic family or lineage may be known as a house, historians periodize the histories of many sovereign states, such as Ancient Egypt, the Carolingian Empire and Imperial China, using a framework of successive dynasties. As such, the dynasty may be used to delimit the era during which the family reigned and to describe events, trends. The word dynasty itself is often dropped from such adjectival references, until the 19th century, it was taken for granted that a legitimate function of a monarch was to aggrandize his dynasty, that is, to increase the territory, wealth, and power of his family members. The longest-surviving dynasty in the world is the Imperial House of Japan, dynasties throughout the world have traditionally been reckoned patrilineally, such as under the Frankish Salic law. Succession through a daughter when permitted was considered to establish a new dynasty in her husbands ruling house, however, some states in Africa, determined descent matrilineally, while rulers have at other times adopted the name of their mothers dynasty when coming into her inheritance. It is also extended to unrelated people such as poets of the same school or various rosters of a single sports team. The word dynasty derives via Latin dynastia from Greek dynastéia, where it referred to power, dominion and it was the abstract noun of dynástēs, the agent noun of dynamis, power or ability, from dýnamai, to be able. A ruler in a dynasty is referred to as a dynast. For example, following his abdication, Edward VIII of the United Kingdom ceased to be a member of the House of Windsor. A dynastic marriage is one that complies with monarchical house law restrictions, the marriage of Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, to Máxima Zorreguieta in 2002 was dynastic, for example, and their eldest child is expected to inherit the Dutch crown eventually. But the marriage of his younger brother Prince Friso to Mabel Wisse Smit in 2003 lacked government support, thus Friso forfeited his place in the order of succession, lost his title as a Prince of the Netherlands, and left his children without dynastic rights. In historical and monarchist references to formerly reigning families, a dynast is a member who would have had succession rights, were the monarchys rules still in force. Even since abolition of the Austrian monarchy, Max and his descendants have not been considered the rightful pretenders by Austrian monarchists, nor have they claimed that position. The term dynast is sometimes used only to refer to descendants of a realms monarchs. The term can therefore describe overlapping but distinct sets of people, yet he is not a male-line member of the royal family, and is therefore not a dynast of the House of Windsor. Thus, in 1999 he requested and obtained permission from Elizabeth II to marry the Roman Catholic Princess Caroline of Monaco. Yet a clause of the English Act of Settlement 1701 remained in effect at that time and that exclusion, too, ceased to apply on 26 March 2015, with retroactive effect for those who had been dynasts prior to triggering it by marriage to a Catholic

13.
House of Romanov
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The Romanovs achieved prominence as boyars of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, later the Tsardom of Russia. In 1613, following years of interregnum, the zemsky sobor offered the Russian crown to Mikhail Romanov and he acceded to the throne as Michael I, becoming the first Tsar of Russia from the House of Romanov. His grandson Peter I established the Russian Empire and transformed the country into a continental power through a series of wars, the direct male line of the Romanovs came to an end when Elizabeth of Russia died in 1762. After an era of crisis, the House of Holstein-Gottorp, a cadet branch of the House of Oldenburg which reigned in Denmark, ascended the throne in 1762 with Peter III. All rulers from the middle of the 18th century to the revolution of 1917 were descended from that branch, though officially known as the House of Romanov, these descendants of the Romanov and Oldenburg dynasties are sometimes referred to as Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov. In early 1917 the Romanov dynasty had 65 members,18 of whom were killed by the Bolsheviks, the remaining 47 members went into exile abroad. In 1924, Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, the senior, surviving male-line descendant of Alexander II of Russia by primogeniture, since 1991, the succession to the former Russian throne has been in dispute, largely due to disagreements over the validity of dynasts marriages. Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia claims to hold the title of empress in pretense with her child, George Mikhailovich. There is also a rival non-Romanov claim put forth by Prince Karl Emich of the House of Leiningen supported by the Monarchist Party, according to the Almanach de Gotha, the name of Russias ruling dynasty from the time of Peter III was Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov. However, the name Romanov and House of Romanov were often used in references to the Russian imperial family. The coat of arms of the Romanov boyars was included in legislation on the imperial dynasty, after the February Revolution all members of the imperial family were given the surname Romanov by special decree of the Provisional Government of Russia. Their earliest common ancestor is one Andrei Kobyla, attested around 1347 as a boyar in the service of Semyon I of Moscow, later generations assigned to Kobyla an illustrious pedigree. An 18th-century genealogy claimed that he was the son of the Prussian prince Glanda Kambila, indeed, one of the leaders of the Old Prussian rebellion of 1260–1274 against the Teutonic order was named Glande. His actual origin may have been less spectacular, not only is Kobyla Russian for mare, some of his relatives also had as nicknames the terms for horses and other domestic animals, thus suggesting descent from one of the royal equerries. One of Kobylas sons, Feodor, a member of the boyar Duma of Dmitri Donskoi, was nicknamed Koshka and his descendants took the surname Koshkin, then changed it to Zakharin, which family later split into two branches, Zakharin-Yakovlev and Zakharin-Yuriev. During the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the family became known as Yakovlev. The family fortunes soared when Romans daughter, Anastasia Zakharyina, married Ivan IV, since her husband had assumed the title of tsar, which literally means Caesar, on 16 January 1547, she was crowned the very first tsaritsa of Russia. Her mysterious death in 1560 changed Ivans character for the worse, suspecting the boyars of having poisoned his beloved, Tsar Ivan started a reign of terror against them

House of Romanov
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A 16th-century residence of the Yuryev-Zakharyin boyars in Zaryadye, near the Kremlin.
House of Romanov
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House of Romanov House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov
House of Romanov
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A crowd at the Ipatiev Monastery imploring Mikhail Romanov's mother to let him go to Moscow and become their tsar (Illumination from a book dated 1673).
House of Romanov
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Peter the Great (1672-1725)

14.
House of Ascania
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The House of Ascania is a dynasty of German rulers. It is also known as the House of Anhalt, after Anhalt, the Ascanians are named after Ascania Castle, Schloss Askanien, which is located near and named after Aschersleben. The castle was seat of the County of Ascania, a title that was subsumed into the titles of the princes of Anhalt. The earliest known member of the house, Esiko, Count of Ballenstedt, first appears in a document of 1036, from Odo, the Ascanians inherited large properties in the Saxon Eastern March. Esikos grandson was Otto, Count of Ballenstedt, who died in 1123, by Ottos marriage to Eilika, daughter of Magnus, Duke of Saxony, the Ascanians became heirs to half of the property of the House of Billung, former dukes of Saxony. Ottos son, Albert the Bear, became, with the help of his mothers inheritance, but he lost control of Saxony soon to the rival House of Guelph. However, Albert inherited the Margraviate of Brandenburg from its last Wendish ruler, Pribislav, in 1157, Albert, and his descendants of the House of Ascania, then made considerable progress in Christianizing and Germanizing the lands. As a borderland between German and Slavic cultures, the country was known as a march, in 1237 and 1244 two towns, Cölln and Berlin were founded during the rule of Otto and Johann, grandsons of Margrave Albert the Bear. The emblem of the House of Ascania, red eagle and bear, in 1320 the Brandenburg Ascanian line came to an end. After the Emperor had deposed the Guelph rulers of Saxony in 1180, Ascanians returned to rule the Duchy of Saxony, however, even in eastern Saxony, the Ascanians could establish control only in limited areas, mostly near the River Elbe. In the 13th century, the Principality of Anhalt was split off from the Duchy, and later, catherine the Great, Empress of Russia from 1762–1796, was a member of the House of Ascania, herself the daughter of Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst. County, Principality, and Duchy of Anhalt, c. und seine Zeit, Bonn,1991 Ducal Family of Anhalt official web site Marek, Miroslav

House of Ascania
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House of Ascania

15.
Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst
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Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst was a German prince of the House of Ascania. He was a ruler of the Principality of Anhalt-Dornburg, then, from 1742 and he was also a Prussian Generalfeldmarschall, but is best known for being the father of Catherine the Great of Russia. Christian August was the son of John Louis I, Prince of Anhalt-Dornburg. After the death of his father in 1704, Christian August inherited Anhalt-Dornburg jointly with his brothers John Louis II, John Augustus, Christian Louis and John Frederick. In 1711 Christian August was awarded the Order De la Générosité, later renamed in Pour le Mérite, on 22 January 1729 he became commander of Stettin, after having been chosen there on 24 May 1725 as a knight of Order of the Black Eagle. Christian August was designated on 28 May 1732 lieutenant-general and on 8 April 1741 infantry general, on 5 June of that year he was designated Governor of Stettin. On 16 May 1742 King Frederick II of Prussia awarded him the highest military dignity, Christian August remained in Stettin and his brother took full charge of the government, but he died only four years later, unmarried and childless. For this reason, Christian August had to leave Stettin and return to Zerbst and they had five children, Sophie Auguste Fredericka, who later became Catherine II the Great, Empress of Russia. Band 4, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1876, S. 157–159

16.
Johanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp
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Johanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp was a princess of the House of Holstein-Gottorp and later the Princess of Anhalt-Zerbst. She is best known as the mother of Catherine the Great of Russia and she was born at Gottorp, the daughter of Christian August, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp and Albertina Frederica of Baden-Durlach. She was the Regent of Anhalt-Zerbst from 1747 to 1752 for her minor son, Johanna Elisabeth grew up on the same footing as her cousin, the duchesss daughter and it was the duchess who arranged her marriage at 15 and provided her dowry. Johanna Elisabeth was married in 1727 to Prince Christian August of Anhalt-Zerbst, who coincidentally had the same Christian name as her father and he was a general in the Prussian army, and served under Frederick William I of Prussia. After her marriage, Johanna Elisabeth travelled with her husband to Stettin, a city on the limits of the bay of Pomerania and it is said that a father-daughter like relationship developed between Johanna Elisabeth and her husband. The city offered little scope for a girl like Johanna Elisabeth. Neither did the birth of her first child bring her much joy and her attitude towards Sophie was always ambivalent. The birth was a one and Joanna Elisabeth seems to have thought that the reward was insufficient. According to her daughter, she died in the process. Infatuated by Sophie, Georg Ludwig proposed marriage, which was considered by his sister. However, this was never to happen as the Empress Elizabeth of Russia sent a letter to Joanna Elisabeth requesting her and her daughters presence in Russia, for the adored William, everything was tried, but without success. The thermal baths which he was put in likely resulted in a disease which eventually caused his death. For Johanna Elisabeth this was a blow, since he was her favorite son. When the prince of Anhalt-Zerbst died, he was succeeded by Louis of Anhalt-Zerbst, by this the family transferred itself to Zerbst. When her brother Adolf Frederick was chosen to succeed to the throne of Sweden, Johanna Elisabeth followed her daughter to her wedding in Russia. She tried to remain at the Russian court at least until the marriage of her daughter, but rumors of a love affair with Count Becki, well known for conspiring against Empress Elizabeth, caused the Empress to threaten to force them both to return to Germany. After the marriage between Catherine and Peter, Johanna was forced to leave Russia and she was prohibited entrance back into Russia and even prevented from maintaining correspondence with her daughter, although she managed to send some letters to her in clandestine manner. In 1747, she was widowed and made regent of Anhalt-Zerbst in place of her minor son, after this, Johanna Elisabeth went to live in Paris

17.
Russian Orthodox Church
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The Russian Orthodox Church, alternatively legally known as the Moscow Patriarchate, is one of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches, in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox patriarchates. The Primate of the ROC is the Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus and it also exercises ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the autonomous Church of Japan and the Orthodox Christians resident in the Peoples Republic of China. The ROC branches in Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Moldova and Ukraine since the 1990s enjoy various degrees of self-government, in Ukraine, ROC has tensions with schismatic groups supported by the current government, while it enjoys the position of numerically dominant religious organisation. The ROC should also not be confused with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, headquartered in New York, New York, the two Churches reconciled on May 17,2007, the ROCOR is now a self-governing part of the Russian Orthodox Church. According to one of the legends, Andrew reached the location of Kiev. The spot where he erected a cross is now marked by St. Andrews Cathedral. By the end of the first millennium AD, eastern Slavic lands started to come under the influence of the Eastern Roman Empire. There is evidence that the first Christian bishop was sent to Novgorod from Constantinople either by Patriarch Photius or Patriarch Ignatios, by the mid-10th century, there was already a Christian community among Kievan nobility, under the leadership of Byzantine Greek priests, although paganism remained the dominant religion. Princess Olga of Kiev was the first ruler of Kievan Rus′ to convert to Christianity and her grandson, Vladimir of Kiev, made Rus officially a Christian state. The Kievan church was a metropolitanate of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Ecumenical patriarch appointed the metropolitan, who usually was a Greek. The Metropolitans residence was located in Kiev itself, the capital of the medieval Rus state. Following the tribulations of the Mongol invasion, the Russian Church was pivotal in the survival, despite the politically motivated murders of Mikhail of Chernigov and Mikhail of Tver, the Mongols were generally tolerant and even granted tax exemption to the Church. Such holy figures as Sergius of Radonezh and Metropolitan Alexis helped the country to withstand years of Tatar oppression, the Trinity monastery founded by Sergius of Radonezh became the setting for the flourishing of spiritual art, exemplified by the work of Andrey Rublev, among others. The followers of Sergius founded four hundred monasteries, thus extending the geographical extent of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. However, the Moscow Prince Vasili II rejected the act of the Council of Florence brought to Moscow by Isidore in March 1441, Isidore was in the same year removed from his position as an apostate and expelled from Moscow. The Russian metropolitanate remained effectively vacant for the few years due largely to the dominance of Uniates in Constantinople then. In December 1448, Jonas, a Russian bishop, was installed by the Council of Russian bishops in Moscow as Metropolitan of Kiev and All Russia without the consent from Constantinople. Subsequently, there developed a theory in Moscow that saw Moscow as the Third Rome, the successor to Constantinople

18.
Lutheranism
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Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestant Christianity which identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German friar, ecclesiastical reformer and theologian. Luthers efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched the Protestant Reformation in the German-speaking territories of the Holy Roman Empire. Lutheranism advocates a doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone on the basis of Scripture alone and this is in contrast to the belief of the Catholic Church, defined at the Council of Trent, concerning authority coming from both the Scriptures and Tradition. In addition, Lutheranism accepts the teachings of the first seven ecumenical councils of the undivided Christian Church, unlike Calvinism, Lutherans retain many of the liturgical practices and sacramental teachings of the pre-Reformation Church, with a particular emphasis on the Eucharist, or Lords Supper. Lutheran theology differs from Reformed theology in Christology, the purpose of Gods Law, the grace, the concept of perseverance of the saints. Today, Lutheranism is one of the largest denominations of Protestantism, with approximately 80 million adherents, it constitutes the third most common Protestant denomination after historically Pentecostal denominations and Anglicanism. The Lutheran World Federation, the largest communion of Lutheran churches, Other Lutheran organizations include the International Lutheran Council and the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference, as well as independent churches. The name Lutheran originated as a term used against Luther by German Scholastic theologian Dr. Johann Maier von Eck during the Leipzig Debate in July 1519. Eck and other Catholics followed the practice of naming a heresy after its leader. Martin Luther always disliked the term Lutheran, preferring the term Evangelical, which was derived from euangelion, the followers of John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, and other theologians linked to the Reformed tradition also began to use that term. To distinguish the two groups, others began to refer to the two groups as Evangelical Lutheran and Evangelical Reformed. As time passed by, the word Evangelical was dropped, Lutherans themselves began to use the term Lutheran in the middle of the 16th century, in order to distinguish themselves from other groups such as the Philippists and Calvinists. In 1597, theologians in Wittenberg defined the title Lutheran as referring to the true church, Lutheranism has its roots in the work of Martin Luther, who sought to reform the Western Church to what he considered a more biblical foundation. Lutheranism spread through all of Scandinavia during the 16th century, as the monarch of Denmark–Norway, through Baltic-German and Swedish rule, Lutheranism also spread into Estonia and Latvia. Since 1520, regular Lutheran services have been held in Copenhagen, under the reign of Frederick I, Denmark-Norway remained officially Catholic. Although Frederick initially pledged to persecute Lutherans, he adopted a policy of protecting Lutheran preachers and reformers. During Fredericks reign, Lutheranism made significant inroads in Denmark, at an open meeting in Copenhagen attended by the king in 1536, the people shouted, We will stand by the holy Gospel, and do not want such bishops anymore. Fredericks son Christian was openly Lutheran, which prevented his election to the throne upon his fathers death, however, following his victory in the civil war that followed, in 1537 he became Christian III and advanced the Reformation in Denmark-Norway

19.
Russian language
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Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi

20.
Russian Empire
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The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until it was overthrown by the short-lived February Revolution in 1917. One of the largest empires in history, stretching over three continents, the Russian Empire was surpassed in landmass only by the British and Mongol empires. The rise of the Russian Empire happened in association with the decline of neighboring powers, the Swedish Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Persia. It played a role in 1812–14 in defeating Napoleons ambitions to control Europe. The House of Romanov ruled the Russian Empire from 1721 until 1762, and its German-descended cadet branch, with 125.6 million subjects registered by the 1897 census, it had the third-largest population in the world at the time, after Qing China and India. Like all empires, it included a large disparity in terms of economics, ethnicity, there were numerous dissident elements, who launched numerous rebellions and assassination attempts, they were closely watched by the secret police, with thousands exiled to Siberia. Economically, the empire had an agricultural base, with low productivity on large estates worked by serfs. The economy slowly industrialized with the help of foreign investments in railways, the land was ruled by a nobility from the 10th through the 17th centuries, and subsequently by an emperor. Tsar Ivan III laid the groundwork for the empire that later emerged and he tripled the territory of his state, ended the dominance of the Golden Horde, renovated the Moscow Kremlin, and laid the foundations of the Russian state. Tsar Peter the Great fought numerous wars and expanded an already huge empire into a major European power, Catherine the Great presided over a golden age. She expanded the state by conquest, colonization and diplomacy, continuing Peter the Greats policy of modernisation along West European lines, Tsar Alexander II promoted numerous reforms, most dramatically the emancipation of all 23 million serfs in 1861. His policy in Eastern Europe involved protecting the Orthodox Christians under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and that connection by 1914 led to Russias entry into the First World War on the side of France, Britain, and Serbia, against the German, Austrian and Ottoman empires. The Russian Empire functioned as a monarchy until the Revolution of 1905. The empire collapsed during the February Revolution of 1917, largely as a result of failures in its participation in the First World War. Perhaps the latter was done to make Europe recognize Russia as more of a European country, Poland was divided in the 1790-1815 era, with much of the land and population going to Russia. Most of the 19th century growth came from adding territory in Asia, Peter I the Great introduced autocracy in Russia and played a major role in introducing his country to the European state system. However, this vast land had a population of 14 million, grain yields trailed behind those of agriculture in the West, compelling nearly the entire population to farm. Only a small percentage lived in towns, the class of kholops, close to the one of slavery, remained a major institution in Russia until 1723, when Peter I converted household kholops into house serfs, thus including them in poll taxation

Russian Empire
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Peter the Great officially renamed the Tsardom of Russia the Russian Empire in 1721, and himself its first emperor. He instituted the sweeping reforms and oversaw the transformation of Russia into a major European power.
Russian Empire
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Flag
Russian Empire
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Empress Catherine the Great, who reigned from 1762 to 1796, continued the empire's expansion and modernization. Considering herself an enlightened absolutist, she played a key role in the Russian Enlightenment.
Russian Empire
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Catherine II Sestroretsk Rouble (1771) is made of solid copper measuring 77 millimetres (3 3 ⁄ 100 in) (diameter), 26 millimetres (1 1 ⁄ 50 in) (thickness), and weighs 1.022 kg (2.25 lb). It is the largest copper coin ever issued.

21.
Peter the Great
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Peter the Great, Peter I or Peter Alexeyevich ruled the Tsardom of Russia and later the Russian Empire from 7 May 1682 until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his elder half-brother, Ivan V. Through a number of successful wars he expanded the Tsardom into a larger empire that became a major European power. He led a revolution that replaced some of the traditionalist and medieval social and political systems with ones that were modern, scientific, westernized. Peters reforms made an impact on Russia and many institutions of Russian government trace their origins to his reign. From an early age, Peters education was put in the hands of tutors, most notably Nikita Zotov, Patrick Gordon. On 29 January 1676, Tsar Alexis died, leaving the sovereignty to Peters elder half-brother and this position changed when Feodor died in 1682. As Feodor did not leave any children, a dispute arose between the Miloslavsky family and Naryshkin family over who should inherit the throne, Peters other half-brother, Ivan V, was next in line for the throne, but he was chronically ill and of infirm mind. Consequently, the Boyar Duma chose the 10-year-old Peter to become Tsar with his mother as regent and this arrangement was brought before the people of Moscow, as ancient tradition demanded, and was ratified. Sophia Alekseyevna, one of Alexis daughters from his first marriage, in the subsequent conflict some of Peters relatives and friends were murdered, including Matveev, and Peter witnessed some of these acts of political violence. The Streltsy made it possible for Sophia, the Miloslavskys and their allies, to insist that Peter and Ivan be proclaimed joint Tsars, Sophia acted as regent during the minority of the sovereigns and exercised all power. For seven years, she ruled as an autocrat, a large hole was cut in the back of the dual-seated throne used by Ivan and Peter. Sophia would sit behind the throne and listen as Peter conversed with nobles, while feeding him information and giving him responses to questions and this throne can be seen in the Kremlin Armoury in Moscow. Peter was not particularly concerned that others ruled in his name and he engaged in such pastimes as shipbuilding and sailing, as well as mock battles with his toy army. Peters mother sought to force him to adopt a conventional approach. The marriage was a failure, and ten years later Peter forced his wife to become a nun, by the summer of 1689, Peter planned to take power from his half-sister Sophia, whose position had been weakened by two unsuccessful Crimean campaigns. When she learned of his designs, Sophia conspired with the leaders of the Streltsy, Sophia was eventually overthrown, with Peter I and Ivan V continuing to act as co-tsars. Peter forced Sophia to enter a convent, where she gave up her name, still, Peter could not acquire actual control over Russian affairs. Power was instead exercised by his mother, Natalya Naryshkina and it was only when Nataliya died in 1694 that Peter became an independent sovereign

Peter the Great
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Peter the Great by Paul Delaroche
Peter the Great
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Peter the Great as a child
Peter the Great
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The Peter the Great statue in Taganrog by Mark Antokolski
Peter the Great
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Portrait of Peter I by Godfrey Kneller, 1698. This portrait was Peter's gift to the King of England.

22.
Great power
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A great power is a sovereign state that is recognized as having the ability and expertise to exert its influence on a global scale. International relations theorists have posited that great power status can be characterized into power capabilities, spatial aspects, while some nations are widely considered to be great powers, there is no definitive list of them. Sometimes the status of great powers is formally recognized in such as the Congress of Vienna or the United Nations Security Council. Accordingly, the status of great powers has also been formally and informally recognised in such as the G7. The term great power was first used to represent the most important powers in Europe during the post-Napoleonic era, the Great Powers constituted the Concert of Europe and claimed the right to joint enforcement of the postwar treaties. The formalization of the division between small powers and great powers came about with the signing of the Treaty of Chaumont in 1814, since then, the international balance of power has shifted numerous times, most dramatically during World War I and World War II. In literature, alternative terms for power are often world power or major power. There are no set or defined characteristics of a great power and these characteristics have often been treated as empirical, self-evident to the assessor. However, this approach has the disadvantage of subjectivity, as a result, there have been attempts to derive some common criteria and to treat these as essential elements of great power status. Later writers have expanded this test, attempting to define power in terms of military, economic. These expanded criteria can be divided into three heads, power capabilities, spatial aspects, and status, as noted above, for many, power capabilities were the sole criterion. However, even under the more expansive tests, power retains a vital place and this aspect has received mixed treatment, with some confusion as to the degree of power required. Writers have approached the concept of power with differing conceptualizations of the world situation. This differed from earlier writers, notably from Leopold von Ranke and these positions have been the subject of criticism. All states have a scope of interests, actions, or projected power. This is a factor in distinguishing a great power from a regional power. It has been suggested that a power should be possessed of actual influence throughout the scope of the prevailing international system. Arnold J. Toynbee, for example, observes that Great power may be defined as a political force exerting an effect co-extensive with the widest range of the society in which it operates, the Great powers of 1914 were world-powers because Western society had recently become world-wide

23.
Grigory Orlov
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Count Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov was the favorite of Empress Catherine the Great of Russia who presumably fathered her son. He led the coup which overthrew Catherines husband Peter III of Russia, for some years, he was virtually co-ruler with her, but his repeated infidelities and the enmity of Catherines other advisers led to his fall from power. He was the son of Gregory Orlov, governor of Great Novgorod and he was educated in the corps of cadets at Saint Petersburg, began his military career in the Seven Years War, and was wounded at Zorndorf. After the event, Empress Catherine raised him to the rank of count and made him adjutant-general, director-general of engineers and they had two illegitimate children, Yelizaveta and Aleksey, who were born in 1761 and 1762, respectively. The son was named after the village of Bobriki where he lived, Orlovs influence became paramount after the discovery of the Khitrovo plot to murder the whole Orlov family. At one time, the Empress thought of marrying her favorite, Orlov was no statesman, but he had a quick wit, a fairly accurate appreciation of current events, and was a useful and sympathetic counselor during the earlier portion of Catherines reign. He entered with enthusiasm, both from patriotic and from economical motives, into the question of the improvement of the condition of the serfs and he was one of the earliest propagandists of the Slavophile idea of the emancipation of the Christians from Ottoman rule. Meanwhile, Orlovs enemies, led by Panin, were attempting to break up the relationship between Orlov and Catherine and they informed the empress that Orlov had seduced his 13-year-old relative. A handsome young officer, Alexander Vasilchikov, was installed as her new lover, to rekindle Catherines affection, Grigory presented to her one of the greater diamonds of the world, known ever since as the Orlov Diamond. By the time he returned - without permission - to his Marble Palace at Saint Petersburg, when Potemkin, in 1774, superseded Vasilchikov as the queens lover, Orlov became of no account at court and went abroad for some years. He returned to Russia a few prior to his death. In 1777, at the age of 43, he married his 18-year-old relative, Catherine Zinovyeva, variously described by sources as either a niece or a cousin, Catherine died of tuberculosis in 1783, at the age of 22. For some time before his death, he suffered from a mental illness, probably a form of dementia. After his death, Catherine wrote, Although I have long been prepared for this sad event, people may console me, I may even repeat to myself all those things which it is customary to say on such occasions--my only answer is strangled tears

24.
Grigory Potemkin
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Prince Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin-Tavricheski was a Russian military leader, statesman, nobleman and favourite of Catherine the Great. He died during negotiations over the Treaty of Jassy, which ended a war with the Ottoman Empire that he had overseen, Potemkin was born into a family of middle-income noble landowners. He first attracted Catherines favor for helping in her 1762 coup and he became Catherines lover, favorite and possibly her consort. After their passion cooled, he remained her friend and favored statesman. Potemkins defining achievements include the annexation of the Crimea and the successful second Russo-Turkish War. The fall of Ottoman stronghold Izmail that he orchestrated prompted Gavrila Derzhavin and Osip Kozlovsky to write Russias first national anthem, in 1774, Potemkin became the governor-general of Russias new southern provinces. An absolute ruler, he worked to colonize the wild steppes and he founded the towns of Kherson, Nikolayev, Sevastopol, and Ekaterinoslav. Ports in the region became bases for his new Black Sea Fleet, Potemkin was known for his love of women, gambling and material wealth, he oversaw the construction of many historically significant buildings, including the Tauride Palace in St. Petersburg. A descendant of the Moscovite diplomat Pyotr Potemkin, Grigory was born in the village of Chizhovo near Smolensk into a family of noble landowners. His father, Alexander Potemkin, was a war veteran, his mother Daria was good-looking, capable and intelligent. Potemkin received his first name in honour of his fathers cousin Grigory Matveevich Kizlovsky and it has been suggested that Kizlovsky fathered Potemkin, who became the centre of attention, heir to the village and the only son among six children. As the son of a family, he grew up with the expectation that he would serve the Russian Empire. After Alexander died in 1746, Daria took charge of the family, in order to achieve a career for her son, and aided by Kizlovsky, the family moved to Moscow, where Potemkin enrolled at a gymnasium school attached to the University of Moscow. The young Potemkin became adept at languages and interested in the Russian Orthodox Church and he enlisted in the army in 1750 at age eleven, in accordance with the custom of noble children. In 1755 a second inspection placed him in the élite Horse Guards regiment, having graduated from the University school, Potemkin became one of the first students to enroll at the University itself. Talented in both Greek and theology, he won the Universitys Gold Medal in 1757 and became part of a twelve-student delegation sent to Saint Petersburg later that year, the trip seems to have affected Potemkin, afterwards he studied little and was soon expelled. Faced with isolation from his family, he rejoined the Guards, at this time his net worth amounted to 430 souls, equivalent to that of the poorer gentry. His time was taken up drinking, gambling, and promiscuous lovemaking

Grigory Potemkin
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Non-contemporary portrait of Potemkin in later life
Grigory Potemkin
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A probably later portrait of a 35-year-old Potemkin at the height of his love affair with Catherine
Grigory Potemkin
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The Empress Catherine at around the same time
Grigory Potemkin
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Potemkin's Tauride Palace in St. Petersburg

25.
Alexander Suvorov
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Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov was a Russian military leader and considered a national hero. He was the Count of Rymnik, Count of the Holy Roman Empire, Prince of Italy, Suvorov was born in Moscow in 1729. He studied military history as a boy and joined the Imperial Russian Army at the age of 17. During the Seven Years War he was promoted to colonel in 1762 for his success on the battlefield, when war broke out with the Bar Confederation in 1768, Suvorov captured Krakow and defeated the Poles at Lanckorona and Stołowicze, bringing about the start of the Partitions of Poland. He was promoted to general and next fought in the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774, becoming the General of the Infantry in 1786, he commanded in the Russo–Turkish War of 1787–1792 and won crushing victories at the Battle of Rymnik and Siege of Izmail. For his accomplishments, he was made a Count of both the Russian Empire and Holy Roman Empire, Suvorov put down a Polish uprising in 1794, defeating them at the Battle of Maciejowice and storming Warsaw. While a close associate of Empress Catherine the Great, Suvorov often quarreled with her son, after Catherine died of a stroke in 1796, Paul I was crowned Emperor and dismissed Suvorov for disregarding his orders. However, he was forced to reinstate Suvorov and make him a marshal at the insistence of the coalition allies for the French Revolutionary Wars. Suvorov was given command of the Austro-Russian army, captured Milan, and drove the French out of Italy at the Battles of Cassano dAdda, Trebbia, Suvorov was made a Prince of Italy for his deeds. Afterwards he became surrounded in the Swiss Alps by the French after a Russian army he was supposed to unite with was routed before he could arrive and he died in 1800 of illness in Saint Petersburg. Suvorov is considered one of the greatest Russian commanders and he was awarded numerous medals, titles, and honors by Russia, as well as by other countries. Suvorov secured Russia expanded borders, renewed military prestige, and a legacy of theories on warfare and he was famed for his military manual The Science of Victory and noted for several of his sayings. Several military academies, monuments, villages, museums, and orders are dedicated to him, Suvorov was born into a noble family originating from Novgorod at the Moscow mansion of his maternal grandfather Fedosey Manukov. His father, Vasiliy Suvorov, was a general-in-chief and a senator in the Governing Senate and his paternal ancestors had emigrated from Sweden in 1622. His mother, Avdotya Fyodorovna née Manukova, was the daughter of Fedosey Manukov, the name Manukov might be a russified version of the Armenian name Manukian. Still Armenian heritage of Suvorov is considered an unproven legend, there is no academic research or source in Russia that can confirm or deny the origin of Suvorovs paternal or maternal ancestors. There are some claims that he told the Swedish ambassador to Russia in 1791 that his family came from Sweden. Those statements are not reliable due the unknown context of discussion, as a boy, Suvorov was a sickly child and his father assumed he would work in civil service as an adult

Alexander Suvorov
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Alexander Suvorov, shown here in a painting by George Dawe. Suvorov is depicted in his uniform of the Preobrazhensky Regiment worn during the reign of Paul I of Russia.
Alexander Suvorov
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Monument to Suvorov as youthful Mars, the Roman god of war, by Mikhail Kozlovsky (1801).
Alexander Suvorov
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Suvorov established a fearsome reputation in operations against the Turks and Poles before the wars with Revolutionary France. He performed well on the Italian and Swiss fronts in 1799.
Alexander Suvorov
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Exiled Suvorov receiving the Emperor's order to lead the Russian army against Napoleon.

26.
Pyotr Rumyantsev
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Count Pyotr Alexandrovich Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky was one of the foremost Russian generals of the 18th century. He governed Little Russia in the name of Empress Catherine the Great from the abolition of the Cossack Hetmanate in 1764 until Catherines death 32 years later, monuments to his victories include Kagul Obelisk in Tsarskoe Selo, Rumyantsev Obelisk on Basil Island, and a galaxy of Derzhavins odes. Peter was the son of Count Alexander Rumyantsev by Maria. As his mother spent much time in the company of Peter the Great and he was named after the ruling Emperor who was his godfather. He was the brother of Praskovya Bruce, confidant of Catherine the Great, Pyotr Alexandrovich first saw military service under his nominal father in the war with Sweden. He personally carried to the Empress the peace treaty of Abo, thereupon he gained promotion to the rank of colonel. His first military glory dates from the battles of the Seven Years War. In 1761 he besieged and took the Pomeranian fortress of Kolberg, throughout the reign of Catherine the Great, Rumyantsev served as supreme governor of Ukraine. Some accuse him of having promoted serfdom in New Russia, with the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish war in 1768, Rumyantsev took command of the army sent to capture Azov. He thoroughly defeated the Turks in the Battles of Larga and Kagula, crossed the Danube, for these dazzling victories he became Field-Marshal and gained the victory title Zadunaisky. When his forces approached Shumla in 1774, the new Sultan Abdul Hamid I started to panic and sued for peace, by that point, Rumyantsev had undoubtedly become the most famous Russian commander. Other Catharinian generals, notably Potemkin, allegedly regarded his fame with such jealousy that they wouldnt permit him to take the command again, in times of peace, Rumyantsev expressed his innovative views on the martial art in the Instructions, Customs of Military Service, and the Thoughts. These works provided a base for the re-organisation of the Russian army undertaken by Potemkin. During the Second Russo-Turkish War, Rumyantsev suspected Potemkin of deliberately curtailing supplies of his army, in the Polish campaign of 1794 he once again won appointment as commander-in-chief, but his rival Suvorov actually led the armies into battle. On this occasion Rumyantsev didnt bother even to leave his Ukrainian manor at Tashan which he had rebuilt into a fortress and he died there on 19 December 1796, just over a month after Catherines death, and was interred in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. As the story goes, old Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky grew enormously fat and avaricious, under his son Sergeys administration, Tashan fell into ruins, although he erected a mausoleum near Balashikha for his fathers reburial. Neither Sergey nor his brother Nikolay Petrovich Rumyantsev married, and the branch of the Rumyantsev family became extinct upon their death. Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh

27.
Fyodor Ushakov
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Fyodor Fyodorovich Ushakov was the most illustrious Russian naval commander and admiral of the 18th century. Ushakov was born in the village of Burnakovo in the Yaroslavl gubernia, on 15 February 1761, he signed up for the Russian Navy in Saint Petersburg. After training, he served on a galley in the Baltic Fleet, in 1768 he was transferred to the Don Flotilla in Taganrog, and served in the Russo-Turkish War. He commanded Catherine IIs own yacht, and later defended Russian merchant ships in the Mediterranean from British Royal Navy attacks, after the Russian Empire annexed Crimea in 1783, Ushakov personally supervised the construction of a naval base in Sevastopol and the building of docks in Kherson. During the Russo-Turkish War, he defeated the Turks at Fidonisi, Kerch Strait, Tendra. In these battles, he demonstrated the excellence of his doctrines in the art of naval fighting. In 1798 Ushakov was promoted to admiral and given command of a squadron which sailed to the Mediterranean via Constantinople. The Russian-Turkish fleet then operated under Ushakovs command in the War of the Second Coalition against France, the expedition started by conquering the Ionian islands, acquired by France the year before from the defunct Republic of Venice in the Treaty of Campo Formio. This action culminated in the siege of Corfu, and led to the subsequent creation of the Republic of Seven Islands, Ushakovs squadron then blockaded French bases in Italy, notably Genoa and Ancona, and successfully assaulted Naples and Rome. Tsar Paul, in his capacity as the Grand Master of the Order of St. John, ordered Ushakov to proceed to Malta, Ushakov was senior in rank to Nelson, and Nelson would be subordinate to him. Nelson disliked that very much, and therefore suggested dispatching the Russian squadron to Egypt instead, brewing conflict between the commanders was prevented by Ushakovs being recalled to Russia in 1800, where the new Emperor, Alexander I, failed to appreciate his victories. Ushakov resigned command in 1807 and withdrew into the Sanaksar Abbey in modern-day Mordovia and he was asked to command the local militia during the Patriotic War of 1812 but declined. In the course of 43 naval battles under his command he did not lose a single ship, giving great value to sea and fire training of his staff, Ushakov was a supporter of generalissimo Suvorovs principles of training for sailors and officers. Ushakovs innovations were among the first successful developments of naval tactics, several warships have been named after Admiral Ushakov. This medal was one of several which was preserved in Russia upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Ushakov Medal was established simultaneously for servicemen who had risked their life in naval theatres defending the Soviet Union. In May 2014, the medal was presented to 19 surviving British sailors who had served on the Arctic convoys during World War II in a ceremony aboard HMS Belfast, the Baltic Naval Institute in Kaliningrad also carries his name. The minor planet 3010 Ushakov, discovered by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Ivanovna Chernykh in 1978, is named after him, in 1953 two Soviet films were released portraying his career Attack from the Sea and Admiral Ushakov. In both films he was played by Ivan Pereverzev, the Russian Orthodox Church glorified him as a patron saint of the Russian Navy in 2000

28.
Crimean Khanate
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The Crimean Khanate was a Turkic vassal state of the Ottoman Empire from 1478 to 1774, the longest-lived of the Turkic khanates that succeeded the empire of the Golden Horde. The khanate was located in present-day Russia and Ukraine, Ottoman forces under Gedik Ahmet Pasha conquered all of the Crimean peninsula and joined it to the khanate in 1475. During the 16th and 17th centuries, the Crimean Khanate was an important center of the slave trade. In 1774, it was released as a independent state, following the Russo-Turkish Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca. English-speaking writers during the 18th and early 19th centuries often called the territory of the Crimean Khanate, the name Little Tartary distinguished the area from Tartary - those areas of central and northern Asia inhabited by Turkic peoples or Tatars. The Khanate included the Crimean peninsula and the adjacent steppes, mostly corresponding to the parts of South Ukraine between the Dnepr and the Donets. The Crimean Khanate originated in the early 15th century when certain clans of the Golden Horde Empire ceased their nomadic life in the Desht-i Kipchak and decided to make Crimea their yurt. At that time, the Golden Horde of the Mongol empire had governed the Crimean peninsula as an ulus since 1239, the local separatists invited a Genghisid contender for the Golden Horde throne, Hacı Giray, to become their khan. Hacı Giray accepted their invitation and traveled from exile in Lithuania and he warred for independence against the Horde from 1420 to 1441, in the end achieving success. But Hacı Giray then had to fight off internal rivals before he could ascend the throne of the khanate in 1449, the khanate included the Crimean Peninsula as well as the adjacent steppe. The sons of Hacı I Giray contended against each other to succeed him, the Ottomans intervened and installed one of the sons, Meñli I Giray, on the throne. Menli I Giray, took the imperial title Sovereign of Two Continents, in 1475 the Ottoman forces, under the command of Gedik Ahmet Pasha, conquered the Greek Principality of Theodoro and the Genoese colonies at Cembalo, Soldaia, and Caffa. Thenceforth the khanate was a protectorate of the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman sultan enjoyed veto power over the selection of new Crimean khans. The Empire annexed the Crimean coast but recognized the legitimacy of the rule of the steppes. In 1475, the Ottomans imprisoned Meñli I Giray for three years for resisting the invasion, after returning from captivity in Constantinople, he accepted the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire. Nevertheless, Ottoman sultans treated the khans more as allies than subjects, the khans continued to have a foreign policy independent from the Ottomans in the steppes of Little Tartary. The khans continued to mint coins and use their names in Friday prayers and they did not pay tribute to the Ottoman Empire, instead the Ottomans paid them in return for their services of providing skilled outriders and frontline cavalry in their campaigns. Later on, Crimea lost power in this relationship as the result of a crisis in 1523, during the reign of Meñlis successor and he died that year and beginning with his successor, from 1524 on, Crimean khans were appointed by the Sultan

29.
Ottoman Empire
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After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans the Ottoman Beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror, at the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states. Some of these were later absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries. With Constantinople as its capital and control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, while the empire was once thought to have entered a period of decline following the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, this view is no longer supported by the majority of academic historians. The empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy, society, however, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, the Ottoman military system fell behind that of their European rivals, the Habsburg and Russian Empires. While the Empire was able to hold its own during the conflict, it was struggling with internal dissent. Starting before World War I, but growing increasingly common and violent during it, major atrocities were committed by the Ottoman government against the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. The word Ottoman is an anglicisation of the name of Osman I. Osmans name in turn was the Turkish form of the Arabic name ʿUthmān, in Ottoman Turkish, the empire was referred to as Devlet-i ʿAlīye-yi ʿOsmānīye, or alternatively ʿOsmānlı Devleti. In Modern Turkish, it is known as Osmanlı İmparatorluğu or Osmanlı Devleti, the Turkish word for Ottoman originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in the fourteenth century, and subsequently came to be used to refer to the empires military-administrative elite. In contrast, the term Turk was used to refer to the Anatolian peasant and tribal population, the term Rūmī was also used to refer to Turkish-speakers by the other Muslim peoples of the empire and beyond. In Western Europe, the two names Ottoman Empire and Turkey were often used interchangeably, with Turkey being increasingly favored both in formal and informal situations and this dichotomy was officially ended in 1920–23, when the newly established Ankara-based Turkish government chose Turkey as the sole official name. Most scholarly historians avoid the terms Turkey, Turks, and Turkish when referring to the Ottomans, as the power of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum declined in the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as the Anatolian Beyliks. One of these beyliks, in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman, osmans early followers consisted both of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, many but not all converts to Islam. Osman extended the control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along the Sakarya River and it is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their neighbours, due to the scarcity of the sources which survive from this period. One school of thought which was popular during the twentieth century argued that the Ottomans achieved success by rallying religious warriors to fight for them in the name of Islam, in the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over Anatolia and the Balkans. Osmans son, Orhan, captured the northwestern Anatolian city of Bursa in 1326 and this conquest meant the loss of Byzantine control over northwestern Anatolia. The important city of Thessaloniki was captured from the Venetians in 1387, the Ottoman victory at Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe

30.
Russo-Turkish wars
–
The Russo-Turkish wars were a series of wars fought between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 20th centuries. It was one of the longest series of conflicts in European history. The latters pro-Ottoman policy caused discontent among many Ukrainian Cossacks, who would elect Ivan Samoilovich as a sole Hetman of all Ukraine in 1674. In 1679–80, the Russians repelled the attacks of the Crimean Tatars and signed the Treaty of Bakhchisarai on January 3,1681, Russia had joined the European Holy League in 1686. During the war, the Russian army organized the Crimean campaigns of 1687 and 1689, the Russian involvement marked the beginning of the Russo-Turkish Wars. The gains by both were confirmed in the Treaty of Constantinople, for a few years, both would border each other through a large territory in the Caucasus now as well, which caused further frictions. The treaties made in 1732 and 1735, had other diplomatically favourable aspects as it included an Russo-Iranian alliance against Turkey as well, as Persia was at war with Ottoman Empire in 1730–1735. In the meantime Russia also was supporting the accession to the Polish throne of Augustus III in 1735 instead of the French protégé Stanisław Leszczyński, Austria was Russias ally since 1726. The casus belli was the raids of the Crimean Tatars on Ukraine in the end of 1735, in 1736, the Russian commanders envisioned the seizure of Azov and the Crimea. On June 19, the Russian Don army under the command of General Peter Lacy with the support from the Don Flotilla under the command of Vice Admiral Peter Bredahl seized the fortress of Azov, in July 1737, the Münnich army took by storm the Ottoman fortress of Ochakov. The Lacy army marched into the Crimea the same month, inflicting a number of defeats on the army of the Crimean khan, however, Lacy and his soldiers had to leave the Crimea due to lack of supplies. In July 1737, Austria entered the war against Turkey, but was defeated a number of times, in August, Russia, Austria and Turkey began negotiations in Nemirov, which would turn out to be fruitless. There were no significant military operations in 1738, the Russian army had to leave Ochakov and Kinburn due to the plague outbreak. In 1739, the Münnich army crossed the Dnieper, defeated the Ottoman Empire at Stavuchany and occupied the fortress of Khotin, however, Austria was defeated by the Ottoman Empire once again and signed a separate peace treaty on August 21. This, coupled with the imminent threat of the Swedish invasion, forced Russia to sign the Belgrade Peace Treaty with Turkey on September 18, following this border incident at Balta, Sultan Mustafa III declared war on Russia on September 25,1768. The Turks formed the alliance with the Polish oppositionary forces of the Bar Confederation, while Russia was supported by the United Kingdom, the naval operations of the Russian Baltic Fleet in the Mediterranean yielded victories under the command of Aleksey Grigoryevich Orlov. In 1771, Egypt and Syria rebelled against the Ottoman rule, while the Russian fleet totally destroyed the Ottoman Navy. On July 21,1774, the Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca, according to which the Crimean Khanate formally gained its independence, Russia received the contribution of 4.5 million rubles and two key seaports allowing the direct access to the Black Sea

Russo-Turkish wars
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Russian and Cossack troops take the fortress of Khadjibey, defeating the Ottomans and thus providing the impetus to found Odessa.
Russo-Turkish wars
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Ottoman losses in the Balkans after the Crimean War, from Literary and Historical Atlas of Europe, by J. G. Bartholomew, 1912
Russo-Turkish wars
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Russian and Bulgarian defence of Shipka Pass against Turkish troops was crucial for the independence of Bulgaria.

31.
Novorossiya
–
Novorossiya, literally New Russia but sometimes called South Russia, is a historical term of the Russian Empire denoting a region north of the Black Sea. It was formed as a new province of Russia in 1764 from military frontier regions along with parts of the southern Hetmanate in preparation for war with the Ottomans. It was further expanded by the annexation of the Zaporozhian Sich in 1775, the region was part of the Russian Empire until its collapse following the Russian February Revolution in early March 1917, after which it became part of the short-lived Russian Republic. In 1918, it was included in the Ukrainian State. The modern history of the region follows the fall of the Golden Horde, the eastern portion was claimed by the Crimean Khanate, while its western regions were divided between Moldavia and Lithuania. With the expansion of the Ottoman Empire, the whole Black Sea northern littoral region came under the control of the Crimean Khanate that in turn became a vassal of the Ottomans. Sometime in the 16th century the Crimean Khanate allowed the Nogai Horde which were displaced from its native Volga region by Muscovites, vast regions to the North of the Black Sea were sparsely populated and were known as the Wild Fields Dykra or Loca deserta in Latin on medieval maps. There were, however, many settlements along the Dnieper River, the Wild Fields had covered roughly the southern territories of modern Ukraine, some say they extended into the modern Southern Russia. In 1764 the Russian Empire established the Novorossiysk Governorate, it was originally to be named after the Empress Catherine and its administrative center was at St. Elizabeth fortress in order to protect the southern borderlands from the Ottoman Empire, and in 1765 this passed to Kremenchuk. There was an endeavor to colonize the region with several ethnic groups. East of the Southern Bug river, in the formerly called New Serbia, in 1757 the largest ethnic group were Romanians at 75%, followed by Serbs at 12%. Catherine the Great invited European settlers to these newly conquered lands, Romanians, Bulgarians, Serbs, Greeks, Albanians, Germans, Poles, Italians, and others. In 1775, the Russian Empress Catherine the Great forcefully liquidated the Zaporizhian Sich and annexed its territory to Novorossiya, prince Grigori Potemkin directed the Russian colonization of the land at the end of 18th century. Catherine the Great granted him the powers of a ruler over the area from 1774. The world of comparison was now even more obviously that of the Western empires, consequently it was all the more clear that the Russian empire merited its own New Russia to go along with everyone elses New Spain, New France, and New England. The adoption of the name of New Russia was in fact the most powerful statement imaginable of Russias national coming of age. In 1792, the Russian government declared that the region between the Dniester and the Bug was to become a new principality named New Moldavia, under Russian suzerainty. According to the first Russian census of the Yedisan region conducted in 179349 villages out of 67 between the Dniester and the Southern Bug were Romanian

Novorossiya
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Ukraine 1648 (south on top) with a broad belt of "loca deserta", Latin for desolated areas
Novorossiya
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A map of Novorossiya (New Russia), c. 1897.
Novorossiya
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Novorossiysk Governorate of Russian Empire. Its central city was Dnipropetrovsk, which was briefly renamed "Novorossiysk" during the reign of Paul I
Novorossiya
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Russian poster from 1921 — "Donbass is the heart of Russia".

32.
Black Sea
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The Black Sea is a body of water between Eastern Europe and Western Asia, bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. It is supplied by a number of rivers, such as the Danube, Dnieper, Rioni, Southern Bug. The Black Sea has an area of 436,400 km2, a depth of 2,212 m. It is constrained by the Pontic Mountains to the south and by the Caucasus Mountains to the east, the longest east-west extent is about 1,175 km. The Black Sea has a water balance, that is, a net outflow of water 300 km3 per year through the Bosphorus. Mediterranean water flows into the Black Sea as part of a two-way hydrological exchange, the Black Sea drains into the Mediterranean Sea and then the Atlantic Ocean, via the Aegean Sea and various straits. The Bosphorus Strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and these waters separate Eastern Europe and Western Asia. The Black Sea is also connected to the Sea of Azov by the Strait of Kerch, the water level has varied significantly. Due to these variations in the level in the basin. At certain critical water levels it is possible for connections with surrounding water bodies to become established and it is through the most active of these connective routes, the Turkish Straits, that the Black Sea joins the world ocean. When this hydrological link is not present, the Black Sea is a basin, operating independently of the global ocean system. Currently the Black Sea water level is high, thus water is being exchanged with the Mediterranean. The Turkish Straits connect the Black Sea with the Aegean Sea, and comprise the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Black Sea as follows, On the Southwest. The Northeastern limit of the Sea of Marmara, a line joining Cape Takil and Cape Panaghia. Strabos Geographica reports that in antiquity, the Black Sea was often just called the Sea, for the most part, Graeco-Roman tradition refers to the Black Sea as the Hospitable sea, Εὔξεινος Πόντος Eúxeinos Póntos. This is a euphemism replacing an earlier Inhospitable Sea, Πόντος Ἄξεινος Póntos Áxeinos, strabo thinks that the Black Sea was called inhospitable before Greek colonization because it was difficult to navigate, and because its shores were inhabited by savage tribes. The name was changed to hospitable after the Milesians had colonized the southern shoreline and it is also possible that the epithet Áxeinos arose by popular etymology from a Scythian word axšaina- unlit, dark, the designation Black Sea may thus date from antiquity. A map of Asia dating to 1570, entitled Asiae Nova Descriptio, from Abraham Orteliuss Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, english-language writers of the 18th century often used the name Euxine Sea to refer to the Black Sea

33.
Azov Sea
–
The Sea of Azov is a sea in Eastern Europe. To the south it is linked by the narrow Strait of Kerch to the Black Sea, the sea is bounded in the north by mainland Ukraine, in the east by Russia, and in the west by the Crimean Peninsula. The Don and Kuban are the rivers that flow into it. The Sea of Azov is the shallowest sea in the world, there is a constant outflow of water from the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea. The sea is affected by the inflow of numerous rivers, which bring sand, silt, and shells, which in turn form numerous bays, limans. Because of these deposits, the sea bottom is relatively smooth, also, due to the river inflow, water in the sea has low salinity and a high amount of biomass that affects the water colour. Abundant plankton results in high fish productivity. The sea shores and spits are low, they are rich in vegetation, the name likely derives from the settlement of an area around Azov, whose name comes from the Kipchak Turkish asak or azaq. A Russian folk etymology, however, instead derives it from an eponymous Cuman prince named Azum or Asuf, a formerly common spelling of the name in English was the Sea of Azoff, which is closer to the Russian pronunciation. In antiquity, the sea was known as the Maeotis Swamp from the marshlands to its northeast. It remains unclear whether it was named for the nearby Maeotians or if that name was applied broadly to various peoples who happened to live beside it. Other names included Lake Maeotis or Maeotius, the Maeotium or Maeotic Sea, the Cimmerian or Scythican Swamps, the Maeotians themselves were said by Pliny to call the sea Temarenda or Temerinda, meaning Mother of Waters. The medieval Russians knew it as the Sea of Surozh after the adjacent city now known as Sudak and it was known in Ottoman Turkish as the Balük-Denis from its high productivity. There are traces of Neolithic settlement in the now covered by the sea. In 1997, William Ryan and Walter Pitman of Columbia University published a theory that a flood through the Bosporus occurred in ancient times. Subsequent work has been both to support and to discredit this theory, and archaeologists still debate it. This has led some to associate this catastrophe with prehistoric flood myths, the Maeotian marshes around the mouth of the Tanais River were famous in antiquity, as they served as an important check on the migration of nomadic people from the Eurasian steppelands. The Maeotians themselves lived by fishing and farming, but were avid warriors able to defend themselves against invaders

34.
Partitions of Poland
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The First Partition of Poland was decided on August 5,1772. Two decades later, Russian and Prussian troops entered the Commonwealth again, Austria did not participate in the Second Partition. The Third Partition of Poland took place on October 24,1795, with this partition, the Commonwealth ceased to exist. In Polish, there are two words for the two meanings. In Polish historiography, the term Fourth Partition of Poland has also been used, the term Fourth Partition in a temporal sense can also mean the diaspora communities that played important political role in re-establishing the Polish sovereign state after 1918. A single member of parliaments belief that a measure was injurious to his own constituency, even after the act had been approved and it became increasingly difficult to undertake action. The liberum veto also provided openings for foreign diplomats to get their ways and this applies particularly to the last Commonwealth King Stanisław August Poniatowski, who for some time had been a lover of Russian Empress Catherine the Great. Their alliance later became known in Poland as the Alliance of the Three Black Eagles, the Commonwealth could never be liquidated unless its long-time ally, Austria, allowed it, so Catherine had to use diplomacy to win Austria to her side. Frederick II retaliated by ordering enough Polish currency counterfeited to severely affect the Polish economy and this new constitution undid the reforms made in 1764 under Stanisław II. The liberum veto and all the old abuses of the last one, the irregular and poorly commanded Polish forces had little chance in the face of the regular Russian army and suffered a major defeat. In 1769 Austria annexed a small territory of Spisz and in 1770 – Nowy Sącz and these territories had been a bone of contention between Poland and Hungary, which was a part of the Austrian crown lands. In February 1772, the agreement of partition was signed in Vienna, early in August, Russian, Prussian and Austrian troops simultaneously invaded the Commonwealth and occupied the provinces agreed upon among themselves. The partition treaty was ratified by its signatories on September 22,1772, to Austria fell Zator and Auschwitz, part of Lesser Poland embracing parts of the counties of Kraków and Sandomir and the whole of Galicia, less the city of Kraków. Catherine of Russia was also very satisfied, by this diplomatic document Russia came into possession of that section of Livonia that had remained in Commonwealth control, and of Belarus embracing the counties of Vitebsk, Polotsk and Mstislavl. By this partition, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth lost about 30% of its territory and half of its population, by seizing northwestern Poland, Prussia instantly gained control over 80% of the Commonwealths total foreign trade. Through levying enormous customs duties, Prussia accelerated the collapse of the Commonwealth, after having occupied their respective territories, the three partitioning powers demanded that King Stanisław and the Sejm approve their action. By 1790 the First Polish Republic had been weakened to such a degree that it was forced into an unnatural and terminal alliance with its enemy, the Polish–Prussian Pact of 1790 was signed. The conditions of the Pact contributed to the succeeding and final two partitions of Poland–Lithuania, the May Constitution of 1791 enfranchised the bourgeoisie, established the separation of the three branches of government, and eliminated the abuses of the Repnin Sejm

35.
Russian colonisation of the Americas
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The Russian colonization of the Americas covers the period from 1732 to 1867, when the Russian Empire laid claim to northern Pacific Coast territories in the Americas. Russian colonial possessions in the Americas are collectively known as Russian America, Russian expansion eastward began in 1552, and in 1639 Russian explorers reached the Pacific Ocean. In 1725, Emperor Peter the Great ordered navigator Vitus Bering to explore the North Pacific for potential colonization, the Russians were primarily interested in the abundance of fur-bearing mammals on Alaskas coast, as stocks had been depleted by overhunting in Siberia. Berings first voyage was foiled by thick fog and ice, but in 1741 a second voyage by Bering, Russian promyshlenniki quickly developed the maritime fur trade, which instigated several conflicts between the Aleuts and Russians in the 1760s. The fur trade proved to be an enterprise, capturing the attention of other European nations. In response to potential competitors, the Russians extended their claims eastward from the Commander Islands to the shores of Alaska, in 1784, with encouragement from Empress Catherine the Great, explorer Grigory Shelekhov founded Russias first permanent settlement in Alaska at Three Saints Bay. Ten years later, the first group of Orthodox Christian missionaries began to arrive, evangelizing thousands of Indians, angered by encroachment on their land and other grievances, the indigenous peoples relations with the Russians deteriorated. In 1802, Tlingit warriors destroyed several Russian settlements, most notably Redoubt Saint Michael and this failed to expel the Russians, who reestablished their presence two years later following the Battle of Sitka. In 1808, Redoubt Saint Michael was rebuilt as New Archangel, a year later, the RAC began expanding its operations to more abundant sea otter grounds in Northern California, where Fort Ross was built in 1812. By the middle of the 19th century, profits from Russias American colonies were in steep decline, competition with the British Hudsons Bay Company had brought the sea otter to near extinction, while the population of bears, wolves, and foxes on land was also nearing depletion. The purchase of Alaska for $7.2 million ended Imperial Russias colonial presence in the Americas, many indigenous peoples protested the sale, arguing that they were the rightful owners of the land and that Russia had no right to sell Alaska. The first European landfall took place in southern Alaska in 1741 during the Russian exploration by Vitus Bering, captain Sterling Romanov and his wife Anna Romanov founded the first Russian colony in the Americas. Between 1774 and 1800 Spain also led expeditions to Alaska in order to assert its claim over the Pacific Northwest. These claims were abandoned at the turn of the 19th century. Imperial Russia was unique among European empires for having no state sponsorship of foreign expeditions or territorial settlement, the first state-protected trading company for sponsoring such activities in the Americas was the Shelikhov-Golikov Company of Grigory Shelikhov and Ivan Larionovich Golikov. A number of companies were operating in Russian America during the 1780s. Shelikhov petitioned the government for control, but in 1788 Catherine II decided to grant his company a monopoly only over the area it had already occupied. Other traders were free to compete elsewhere, catherines decision was issued as the imperial ukase of September 28,1788

36.
Russian America
–
Russian America was the name of the Russian colonial possessions in North America from 1733 to 1867. Settlements spanned parts of what are now the US states of California, Alaska, many of its possessions were abandoned in the 19th century. In 1867 Russia sold its last remaining possessions to the United States for $7.2 million, the earliest written accounts indicate that the first Europeans to reach Alaska came from Russia. In 1648 Semyon Dezhnev sailed from the mouth of the Kolyma River through the Arctic Ocean, one legend holds that some of his boats were carried off course and reached Alaska. However, no evidence of settlement survives, dezhnevs discovery was never forwarded to the central government, leaving open the question of whether or not Siberia was connected to North America. In 1725, Tsar Peter the Great called for another expedition, as a part of the 1733-1743 second Kamchatka expedition, the Sv. Petr under the Dane Vitus Bering and the Sv, Pavel under the Russian Alexei Chirikov set sail from the Kamchatkan port of Petropavlovsk in June 1741. They were soon separated, but each continued sailing east, on July 15, Chirikov sighted land, probably the west side of Prince of Wales Island in southeast Alaska. He sent a group of men ashore in a longboat, making them the first Europeans to land on the northwestern coast of North America, on roughly July 16, Bering and the crew of Sv. Petr sighted Mount Saint Elias on the Alaskan mainland, they turned westward toward Russia soon afterward, Pavel headed back to Russia in October with news of the land they had found. In November Berings ship was wrecked on Bering Island, there Bering fell ill and died, and high winds dashed the Sv. After the stranded crew wintered on the island, the built an boat from the wreckage. Berings crew reached the shore of Kamchatka in 1742, carrying word of the expedition, the high quality of the sea-otter pelts they brought sparked Russian settlement in Alaska. From 1743 small associations of fur traders began to sail from the shores of the Russian Pacific coast to the Aleutian islands, as the runs from Asiatic Russia to America became longer expeditions, the crews established hunting and trading posts. By the late 1790s some of these had become permanent settlements, approximately half of the fur traders were Russians from various European parts of the Russian Empire or from Siberia. The others were indigenous people from Siberia or Siberians with mixed indigenous, rather than hunting the marine life, the Russians forced the Aleuts to do the work for them. As word spread of the riches in furs to be had, competition among Russian companies increased, catherine the Great, who became Empress in 1763, proclaimed goodwill toward the Aleuts and urged her subjects to treat them fairly. On some islands and parts of the Alaska Peninsula, groups of traders had been capable of relatively peaceful coexistence with the local inhabitants, other groups could not manage the tensions and perpetrated exactions

Russian America
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Russian America in 1860
Russian America
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Flag
Russian America
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Bering Strait, where Russia's east coast comes closest to Alaska's west coast
Russian America
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Alexander Andreyevich Baranov, called "Lord of Alaska" by Hector Chevigny, played an active role in the Russian–American Company and was the first governor of Russian America.

37.
Guberniya
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A governorate, or a guberniya, was a major and principal administrative subdivision of the Russian Empire and the early Russian SFSR. The term is translated as government, governorate, or province. A governorate was ruled by a governor, a word borrowed from Latin gubernator, sometimes the term guberniya was informally used to refer to the office of a governor. Selected governorates were united under a governor general such as Grand Duchy of Finland, Tsardom of Poland, Russian Turkestan. There also were military governors such as Kronshtadt, Vladivostok, aside of governorates, other types of divisions were oblasts and okrugs. This subdivision type was created by the edict of Peter the Great on December 18,1708 On the establishment of the gubernias and cities assigned to them, in 1719, guberniyas were further subdivided into provinces. Later the number of guberniyas was increased to 23, the term guberniya, however, still remained in use. These viceroyalties were governed by namestniki or governors general, correspondingly, the term governorate general was in use to refer to the actual territory being governed. The office of general had more administrative power and was in a higher position than the previous office of governor. Sometimes a governor general ruled several guberniyas, for the guberniya as subdivisions of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Finland, see Administrative division of Congress Poland and Governorates of the Grand Duchy of Finland. For the guberniya as subdivisions of the Ukrainian Peoples Republic and the Ukrainian SSR, after the February Revolution, the Russian Provisional Government renamed governors into guberniya commissars. The October Revolution left the subdivision in place, but the apparatus was replaced by guberniya soviets. Actual subdivisions of the Soviet Union into particular territorial units was subject to numerous changes, eventually, in 1929, the subdivision was replaced by the notions of oblast, okrug, and raion. In post-Soviet republics such as Russia and Ukraine, the term Guberniya is obsolete, there is another archaic meaning of the word as the word denoted a type of estate in former Lithuania of the Russian Empire till 1917. History of the division of Russia List of governorates of the Russian Empire Governorate-General GOELRO plan Ignatov. History of state administration of Russia

Guberniya
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Division of Russia into eight guberniyas in 1708

38.
Serfdom in Russia
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The term serf, in the sense of an unfree peasant of the Russian Empire, is the usual translation of krepostnoi krestyanin. The origins of serfdom in Russia are traced to Kievan Rus in the 11th century, Legal documents of the epoch, such as Russkaya Pravda, distinguished several degrees of feudal dependency of peasants. Serfdom became the dominant form of relation between peasants and nobility in the 17th century, Serfdom only existed in central and southern areas of the Russian Empire. It was never established in the north, the Urals or Siberia, Tsar Alexander I wanted to reform the system but was stymied. New laws allowed all classes to own land, a privilege that was confined to the nobility. Russian serfdom was abolished in the emancipation reform of 1861 by Tsar Alexander II. The term muzhik, or moujik means Russian peasant when it is used in English, the origins of serfdom in Russia may be traced to the 11th century, however, the most complete form of feudal exploitation enveloped only certain categories of rural population. In the 12th century, the exploitation of the so-called zakups on arable lands, according to the Russkaya Pravda, a princely smerd had limited property and personal rights. His escheat was given to the prince and his life was equated with that of the kholop, in the 13th to 15th centuries, feudal dependency applied to a significant number of peasants, but serfdom as we know it was still not a widespread phenomenon. In the mid-15th century the right of certain categories of peasants in some votchinas to leave their master was limited to a period of one week before and after the so-called Yuris Day. The Sudebnik of 1497 officially confirmed this time limit as universal for everybody, the legal code of Ivan III of Russia, Sudebnik, strengthened the dependency of peasants, statewide, and restricted their mobility. The Russians persistently battled against the states of the Golden Horde. The Sudebnik of 1550 increased the amount of pozhiloye and introduced a tax called za povoz. These also defined the so-called fixed years, or the 5-year time frame for search of the runaway peasants. In 1607, a new ukase defined sanctions for hiding and keeping the runaways, the Sobornoye Ulozhenie of 1649 gave serfs to estates, and in 1658, flight was made a criminal offense. Russian landowners eventually gained almost unlimited ownership over Russian serfs, the landowner could transfer the serf without land to another landowner while keeping the serfs personal property and family, however, the landowner had no right to kill the serf. About four-fifths of Russian peasants were serfs according to the censuses of 1678 and 1719, free peasants remained only in the North, most of the dvoryane were content with the long time frame for search of the runaway peasants. During the first half of the 17th century the dvoryane sent their collective petitions to the authorities, in 1642, the Russian government established a 10-year limit for search of the runaways and 15-year limit for search for peasants taken away by their new owners

Serfdom in Russia
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A Peasant Leaving His Landlord on Yuriev Day, painting by Sergei V. Ivanov.
Serfdom in Russia
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Vengeance of Serfs. Engraving by Charles Michel Geoffroy, 1845.
Serfdom in Russia
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"The Bargain" by Nikolai Nevrev (Sale of a serf girl)
Serfdom in Russia
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Kateryna, painting of a Ukrainian serf girl by Taras Shevchenko himself born a serf.

39.
Cossacks
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Cossacks are a group of predominantly East Slavic-speaking people who became known as members of democratic, self-governing, semi-military communities, predominantly located in Ukraine and in Russia. The origins of the first Cossacks are disputed, though the 1710 Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk claimed Khazar origin, the Zaporizhian Sich were a vassal people of Poland–Lithuania during feudal times. Under increasing pressure from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, in the century the Sich declared an independent Cossack Hetmanate. Afterwards, the Treaty of Pereyaslav brought most of the Ukrainian Cossack state under Russian rule, the Sich with its lands became an autonomous region under the Russian-Polish protectorate. The Don Cossack Host, which had established by the 16th century. Together they began a systematic conquest and colonisation of lands in order to secure the borders on the Volga, the whole of Siberia, and the Yaik, Cossack communities had developed along the latter two rivers well before the arrival of the Don Cossacks. By the 18th century, Cossack hosts in the Russian Empire occupied effective buffer zones on its borders, the expansionist ambitions of the Empire relied on ensuring the loyalty of Cossacks, which caused tension given their traditional exercise of freedom, democratic self-rule, and independence. By the end of the 18th century, Cossack nations had transformed into a special military estate. The government provided only firearms and supplies for them, Cossack service was considered the most rigorous one. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Tsarist regime used Cossacks extensively to perform police service and they also served as border guards on national and internal ethnic borders. During the Russian Civil War, Don and Kuban Cossacks were the first nations to open war against the Bolsheviks. By 1918, Cossacks declared the independence of their nations and formed the independent states, the Ukrainian State, the Don Republic. The Cossack troops formed the core of the anti-Bolshevik White Army. With the victory of the Red Army, the Cossack lands were subjected to Decossackization, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Cossacks made a systematic return to Russia. Many took a part in Post-Soviet conflicts and Yugoslav Wars. In Russias 2010 Population Census, Cossacks have been recognized as an ethnicity, there are Cossack organizations in Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Poland, and the United States. Max Vasmers etymological dictionary traces the name to the Old East Slavic word козакъ, kozak, the ethnonym Kazakh is from the same Turkic root. In written sources the name is first attested in Codex Cumanicus from the 13th century, in English, Cossack is first attested in 1590

Cossacks
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Italian map of «European Tartaria» (1684). Dnieper Ukraine is marked as « Ukraine or the land of Zaporozhian Cossacks (Vkraina o Paese de Cossachi di Zaporowa)». On the east there is « Ukraine or the land of Don Cossacks, who are subjects of Muscovy (Vkraina ouero Paese de Cossachi Tanaiti Soggetti al Moscouita)».
Cossacks
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Cossack Mamay – the ideal image of Cossack in Ukrainian folklore.
Cossacks
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A Zaporozhian Cossack, 17th-18th century traditional clothing.

40.
Russian nobility
–
The Russian nobility arose in the 14th century. Its members staffed most of the Russian government apparatus until the February Revolution of 1917, the Russian word for nobility, dvoryanstvo, derives from the Polish word dwor, meaning the court of a prince or duke and later, the court of the tsar or emperor. A nobleman is called a dvoryanin, pre-Soviet Russia shared with other countries the concept that nobility connotes a status or a social category rather than a title. The nobility arose in the 12th and 13th centuries as the lowest part of the military class. From the 14th century land ownership by nobles increased, and by the 17th century the bulk of feudal lords and they made up the Landed army —the basic military force of Russia. Peter the Great finalized the status of the nobility, while abolishing the boyar title, however, Russia’s existing economic system, which lacked a sizable middle class and which relied on forced labor, was an impassable obstacle to the development of a free market. Furthermore, the lower classes – the overwhelming majority of the Russian population – lived virtually isolated from the upper classes, thus, most of the nobility’s “western” tendencies were largely superficial and confined to a tiny portion of the populace. Ironically, by introducing the nobility to political literature from Western Europe, Catherine exposed Russia’s autocracy to them as archaic and illiberal. Although Peter the Great is considered by many to be the first westernizer of Russia, there were, in fact, ivan III, starting in 1472, sent numerous agents to Italy to study architecture. Both Michael Romanov and his son Alexis invited and sponsored European visitors – mostly military, medical, Peter the Great was, first and foremost, eager to do away with Russia’s reputation as an Asiatic land and to propel his new empire onto the political stage of Western Europe. In 1697, he began to send nobles on compulsory trips abroad to England, Holland, while the tsar primarily designed these expeditions for naval training, he also encouraged the noblemen to learn about the arts of the west. When the travelers returned to Moscow, Peter tested them on their training, insisting on further education for those whose accumulated knowledge was unsatisfactory. By 1724, he had established – for the purpose of study and discovery – the Academy of Sciences. Peter’s westernizing efforts became quite radical after 1698, when he returned from his expedition through Europe, upon arriving, Peter summoned the nobility to his court and personally shaved almost every beard in the room. In 1705 he decreed a beard tax on all ranked men in Moscow and he also reformed the clothing of the nobility, abandoning the long-sleeved, traditional Muscovite robes for European fashion. Beginning in 1699 the tsar decreed strict dress requirements borrowing from German, Hungarian, French, Peter himself, usually sporting German dress and a trimmed mustache, acted as a prime example. While the nobility universally followed Peter’s fashion preferences at court, they greatly resented these styles, away from St. Petersburg, very few noblemen followed Peter’s guidelines and enforcement was lax. Peter also demanded changes in mannerisms and language among nobles, in order to supply Russians with a basic set of “proper” morals and habits, he ordered publication of manuals on Western etiquette

41.
Classicism
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Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. Classicism is a genre of philosophy, expressing itself in literature, architecture, art, and music, which has Ancient Greek and Roman sources. It was particularly expressed in the Neoclassicism of the Age of Enlightenment, Classicism is a recurrent tendency in the Late Antique period, and had a major revival in Carolingian and Ottonian art. Until that time the identification with antiquity had been seen as a history of Christendom from the conversion of Roman Emperor Constantine I. Renaissance classicism introduced a host of elements into European culture, including the application of mathematics and empiricism into art, humanism, literary and depictive realism, importantly it also introduced Polytheism, or paganism, and the juxtaposition of ancient and modern. The classicism of the Renaissance led to, and gave way to and this period sought the revival of classical art forms, including Greek drama and music. Opera, in its modern European form, had its roots in attempts to recreate the combination of singing and dancing with theatre thought to be the Greek norm, examples of this appeal to classicism included Dante, Petrarch, and Shakespeare in poetry and theatre. Tudor drama, in particular, modeled itself after classical ideals, studying Ancient Greek became regarded as essential for a well-rounded education in the liberal arts. They also began reviving plastic arts such as bronze casting for sculpture, for example, the painting of Jacques-Louis David which was seen as an attempt to return to formal balance, clarity, manliness, and vigor in art. Various movements of the period saw themselves as classical revolts against a prevailing trend of emotionalism and irregularity. The 20th century saw a number of changes in the arts, thus, both pre-20th century disciplines were labelled classical and modern movements in art which saw themselves as aligned with light, space, sparseness of texture, and formal coherence. Examples of classicist playwrights are Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine and Moliere, the influence of these French rules on playwrights in other nations is debatable. In the English theatre, Restoration playwrights such as William Wycherly and those of Shakespeares plays that seem to display the unities, such as The Tempest, probably indicate a familiarity with actual models from classical antiquity. Classicism in architecture developed during the Italian Renaissance, notably in the writings and designs of Leon Battista Alberti and this style quickly spread to other Italian cities and then to France, Germany, England, Russia and elsewhere. In the 16th century, Sebastiano Serlio helped codify the classical orders, building off of these influences, the 17th-century architects Inigo Jones and Christopher Wren firmly established classicism in England. For the development of classicism from the mid-18th-century onwards, see Neoclassical architecture, for Greek art of the 5th century B. C. E. See Classical art in ancient Greece and the Severe style Italian Renaissance painting and sculpture are marked by their renewal of classical forms, motifs and subjects. In the 15th century Leon Battista Alberti was important in theorizing many of the ideas for painting that came to a fully realised product with Raphaels School of Athens during the High Renaissance

42.
The Enlightenment
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The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement which dominated the world of ideas in Europe during the 18th century, The Century of Philosophy. In France, the doctrines of les Lumières were individual liberty and religious tolerance in opposition to an absolute monarchy. French historians traditionally place the Enlightenment between 1715, the year that Louis XIV died, and 1789, the beginning of the French Revolution, some recent historians begin the period in the 1620s, with the start of the scientific revolution. Les philosophes of the widely circulated their ideas through meetings at scientific academies, Masonic lodges, literary salons, coffee houses. The ideas of the Enlightenment undermined the authority of the monarchy and the Church, a variety of 19th-century movements, including liberalism and neo-classicism, trace their intellectual heritage back to the Enlightenment. The Age of Enlightenment was preceded by and closely associated with the scientific revolution, earlier philosophers whose work influenced the Enlightenment included Francis Bacon, René Descartes, John Locke, and Baruch Spinoza. The major figures of the Enlightenment included Cesare Beccaria, Voltaire, Denis Diderot, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, David Hume, Adam Smith, Benjamin Franklin visited Europe repeatedly and contributed actively to the scientific and political debates there and brought the newest ideas back to Philadelphia. Thomas Jefferson closely followed European ideas and later incorporated some of the ideals of the Enlightenment into the Declaration of Independence, others like James Madison incorporated them into the Constitution in 1787. The most influential publication of the Enlightenment was the Encyclopédie, the ideas of the Enlightenment played a major role in inspiring the French Revolution, which began in 1789. After the Revolution, the Enlightenment was followed by an intellectual movement known as Romanticism. René Descartes rationalist philosophy laid the foundation for enlightenment thinking and his attempt to construct the sciences on a secure metaphysical foundation was not as successful as his method of doubt applied in philosophic areas leading to a dualistic doctrine of mind and matter. His skepticism was refined by John Lockes 1690 Essay Concerning Human Understanding and his dualism was challenged by Spinozas uncompromising assertion of the unity of matter in his Tractatus and Ethics. Both lines of thought were opposed by a conservative Counter-Enlightenment. In the mid-18th century, Paris became the center of an explosion of philosophic and scientific activity challenging traditional doctrines, the political philosopher Montesquieu introduced the idea of a separation of powers in a government, a concept which was enthusiastically adopted by the authors of the United States Constitution. Francis Hutcheson, a philosopher, described the utilitarian and consequentialist principle that virtue is that which provides, in his words. Much of what is incorporated in the method and some modern attitudes towards the relationship between science and religion were developed by his protégés David Hume and Adam Smith. Hume became a figure in the skeptical philosophical and empiricist traditions of philosophy. Immanuel Kant tried to reconcile rationalism and religious belief, individual freedom and political authority, as well as map out a view of the sphere through private

43.
Russian Enlightenment
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During this time, the first Russian university was founded, a library, a theatre, a public museum, as well as relatively independent press. Like other enlightened despots, Catherine the Great played a key role in fostering the arts, sciences, the Pugachev Rebellion and French Revolution may have shattered the illusions of rapid political change, but the intellectual climate in Russia was altered irrevocably. The ideas of the Russian Enlightenment were first espoused by the druzhina of Peter the Great. It is the spirit which animates the sermons of Feofan Prokopovich, the satires of Antiokh Kantemir, during the reign of Peters daughter Elizaveta Petrovna the ideas of the Enlightened Absolutism found their way into Russia. Shuvalov was also the patron of the greatest Russian polymath– Mikhail Lomonosov– who left his mark in various branches of science, religious philosophy, poetry, although his research inevitably eroded the authority of religious doctrines, Lomonosov himself was a devout Christian. Catherine the Great considered herself an enlightened despot and she read the most prominent philosophes of the day, including Montesquieu and Voltaire and tried to adhere to Enlightenment ideas. She wished to bring Russia up to par with its neighbors not only in a sense, but also politically, culturally. Many of Catherines contemporaries questioned her adherence to Enlightenment ideals and thought she was an egoist, Gender played a primary role in these criticisms. Contemporaries interpreted her personality as combining masculine strength with feminine vanity, Westernization carries different meanings in different countries over varying time periods. But in relation to Russia during the 18th century, the term meant legislative changes to economics, politics and it also entails the Russian gentrys adherence to a set standard and its imitation of the Western values. Westernization in Russia included the modernization of machinery, the refinement of an efficient bureaucracy. Russia produced more goods, and enlisted thousands of troops during Catherines reign, bringing Russia to an equal level with the rest of Europe intellectually was a major concern of Catherines. For this reason she created laws that justified her rule, almost every Russian ruler has sought to conquer ports in warm waters. Peter I fought the Ottoman Empire over the Crimea, gaining access to the Crimea would have given Russia access to the Black Sea and the Dardanelles. While Russia occupied Poland, France realized that the Ottoman Empire was the country in a position to topple Catherine. Supported by France, the Turks told Russia to leave Poland, Russia declared war on the Sultan immediately afterward. After several successful victories including the destruction of the Turkish naval fleet, Catherine, who had at first been treated as a dilettante in politics, now appeared to all the Western chanceries as an evil genius. Catherine returned to the Crimea in November 1776, and imposed a ruler for the reoccupation of the peninsula because of disturbances there, the Crimeans revolted in 1778, after which the Russians went in the same year and installed their own leader to the throne

44.
Smolny Institute
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The Smolny Institute is a Palladian edifice in St Petersburg that has played a major part in the history of Russia. Petersburg and then the Novodevichii Institute for the daughters of commoners. ”The Smolny was Russias first educational establishment for women, a nice garden and iron-work grille around the institute date from the early 19th century. In 1917, the building was chosen by Vladimir Lenin as Bolshevik headquarters during the October Revolution and it was Lenins residence for several months, until the national government was moved to the Moscow Kremlin in March 1918. After that, the Smolny became the headquarters of the local Communist Party apparat, in 1927, a monument to Lenin was erected in front of the building, designed by the sculptor Vasily Kozlov and the architects Vladimir Shchuko and Vladimir Gelfreikh. This was the site of Sergei Kirovs assassination in 1934, after 1991, the Smolny was used as the seat of the city mayor and city administration. Vladimir Putin worked there from 1991 to 1997 in the administration of Anatoly Sobchak, today, this historic building is the official residence of the governor of St. Peterburg and also houses a museum dedicated to Lenin. Visitors to the museum can tour Lenins office and living rooms and even see the assembly hall. The name Smolny derives from the location, in the days of St. Petersburg the place at the edge of the city where pitch was processed for use in shipbuilding. As a result, the locale was called smolny - the place of pitch, views of the Smolny Smolny Chapter 4 from Six Red Months in Russia by Louise Bryant

Smolny Institute
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Modern view of the facade, with a Lenin statue in the foreground.
Smolny Institute
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Quarenghi 's original design for the Smolny Institute (1806).

45.
Female education
–
Female education is a catch-all term for a complex set of issues and debates surrounding education for girls and women. It includes areas of gender equality and access to education, while the feminist movement certainly promoted the importance of the issues attached to female education the discussion is wide-ranging and by no means narrowly defined. It may include, for example, AIDS education, universal education, meaning state-provided primary and secondary education independent of gender is not yet a global norm, even if it is assumed in most developed countries. In some Western countries, women have surpassed men at many levels of education, for example, in the United States in 2005/2006, women earned 62% of associate degrees, 58% of bachelors degrees, 60% of masters degrees, and 50% of doctorates. Education for disabled women has also improved, in 2011, Giusi Spagnolo became the first woman with Down Syndrome to graduate college in Europe. Improving girls educational levels has been demonstrated to have clear impacts on the health and economic future of young women, the infant mortality rate of babies whose mothers have received primary education is half that of children whose mothers are illiterate. In the poorest countries of the world, 50% of girls do not attend secondary school, yet, research shows that every extra year of school for girls increases their lifetime income by 15%. Improving female education, and thus the potential of women, improves the standard of living for their own children. Yet, many barriers to education for girls remain, in some African countries, such as Burkina Faso, girls are unlikely to attend school for such basic reasons as a lack of private latrine facilities for girls. Education increases a level of health and health awareness. It can lead to rates of barrier and chemical contraceptive use. It has been shown, in addition, to increase communication with their partners and their employers. Education and Violence Against Women In Pakistan, a relationship was found between the formal level of education a woman attains and the likelihood of violence against that woman. The researcher used snowball convenient sampling, a method where participants are referred. Ethical and privacy issues made this the most convenient method, an informant played a major role in gathering information that was then cross-checked. The sample of victims of violence was made up of married women from ages 18–60 both from rural and urban communities, the study described different forms of physical violence that are already present and provided an idea of what women go through, even across communities. Education in this study was stressed to be the solution and a necessity in eliminating violence, a discussion of political and social barriers is needed. The relationship is a lot more complicated than it seems, women can be illiterate, immigrant Latina Women are a highly affected group by domestic violence

Female education
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Schoolgirls in Guinea
Female education
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Girls' class in Afghanistan, 2002
Female education
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Portrait emphasizing the female subject's literacy, from Pompeii, mid-1st century AD
Female education
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Page from an illuminated manuscript from the late 10th century. The three nuns in front are all holding books, and the middle one appears to be teaching, gesturing to make a point.

46.
Louis Caravaque
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Louis Caravaque was a French portrait painter who worked in Russia. Caravaque was born in Marseilles, in a family from Gascony and he went to Russia, and painted a portrait of Peter the Great at Astrakhan in 1716. It was engraved by Massard and by Langlois and he painted the Tsar again in 1723, and later did portraits of the Empresses Anne and Elizabeth. He died in Russia St. Petersburg, in June 9,1754

Louis Caravaque
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Portrait of Empress Anna Ioannovna, 1730. Now at the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
Louis Caravaque
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Portrait of Peter the Great.
Louis Caravaque
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Portrait of the future Empress Elizabeth as an Olympic goddess. Now at the Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
Louis Caravaque
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Portrait of Catherine II of Russia, 1745. Now at the Gatchina Palace.

47.
Royal family
–
A royal family is the immediate family of a king or queen regnant, and sometimes his or her extended family. However, in common parlance members of any family which reigns by hereditary right are often referred to as royalty or royals and it is also customary in some circles to refer to the extended relations of a deposed monarch and his or her descendants as a royal family. A dynasty is referred to as the House of. As of July 2013, there are 26 active sovereign monarchies in the world who rule or reign over 43 countries in all, in some cases, royal family membership may extend to great grandchildren and more distant descendants of a monarch. In certain monarchies where voluntary abdication is the norm, such as the Netherlands, there is often a distinction between persons of the blood royal and those that marry into the royal family. In certain instances, such as in Canada, the family is defined by who holds the styles Majesty. Under most systems, only persons in the first category are dynasts and this is not always observed, some monarchies have operated by the principle of jure uxoris. In addition, certain relatives of the monarch possess special privileges and are subject to certain statutes, conventions, the precise functions of a royal family vary depending on whether the polity in question is an absolute monarchy, a constitutional monarchy, or somewhere in between. The specific composition of royal families varies from country to country, as do the titles and royal, the composition of the royal family may be regulated by statute enacted by the legislature, the sovereigns prerogative and common law tradition, or a private house law. Public statutes, constitutional provisions, or conventions may also regulate the marriages, names, the members of a royal family may or may not have a surname or dynastic name. Some countries have abolished royalty altogether, as in post-revolutionary France, whilst mediatization occurred in other countries such as France, Italy and Russia, only the certain houses within the former Holy Roman Empire are collectively called the Mediatized Houses